"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
— The Declaration of Independence
The many gun-toting residents of Hope County. For characters originating and reappearing in the sequel, see here.
open/close all folders
Hope County Sheriff's Department
The feds sent to arrest the radical preacher Joseph Seed. Things don't go according to plan. In General
- Break the Cutie: Joey, Cameron and Pratt have quite a number done on them by the time they are rescued by the Deputy.
- Joey is implied to have been so tortured that the Deputy has to fight her off for a solid minute before she recognizes the Deputy.
- Marshall Burke implies that he drifted through life having accomplished nothing, and feels empty as a result. The Bliss Faith has him addicted to is the only way he’s felt happy, and he’s quite content to stay there.
- Staci Pratt is arguably the worst off, having been so brainwashed by Jacob Seed that Jacob intentionally has him shave Jacob with a Bowie knife to show how much control he has over Pratt, and he has clearly been brainwashed enough to start following Jacob’s ideology of “culling the weak”, even refusing to rescue a random prisoner because of it, only the Deputy. The only thing that keeps him from being a Fallen Hero is that he eventually places Eden’s Gate as weak, and the Resistance and him as strong.
- The Deputy has it worse off than Staci, going through extensive physical and psychological torture, being nearly drowned and having the sin of Wrath tattooed on them and then cut off by John, being starved for a week and brainwashed by Jacob into killing Eli, and being repeatedly drugged by Faith. It all culminates in them being locked into a bunker by Joseph Seed and brainwashed into The Judge, a silent hulk who never speaks except for grunting and crying.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Whitehorse, Hudson, and Pratt all die unceremoniously in a car crash during the Resist ending.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Had any of them thought to cuff Joseph, it’s very likely that the Deputy would have been able to fight him off and avoid the death of Dutch and being brainwashed into The Judge. However, it’s quite understandable given that they had just witnessed a nuclear bomb going off and were thus running for their lives.
- The Mole: Two of them, and one not by choice. Nancy, their dispatcher, is a Peggie, preventing the Sheriff's department from summoning help, and Burke is tragically brainwashed by the Bliss and Faith into murdering Virgil, breaking open the Hope County Jail’s defenses, and then killing himself.
- Religious Bruiser: Implied. During the Resist ending, Pratt can be heard screaming the Hail Mary prayer, while Marshall Burke wears a cross necklace, implying both are/were Christians.
The Junior Deputy
Voiced by: N/A
The Player Character, left stranded in Hope County after the botched arrest of Joseph Seed. It's up to them to rally together a resistance to fight back against the cult.
- Ambiguous Situation: Regarding the final scene in the Walk Away Ending, where Whitehorse turns on the radio to calm his nerves... and the song that plays, of all songs, is Jacob's trigger song. However, we have a Smash to Black before we are seen what happens next; whether the Deputy kills the entire team or is restrained before that point is completely left in the air.
- The Ace: The Junior Deputy is this for both the Hope County Sheriff's Department and the Resistance. They can use any gun, explosive or tool obtained in a matter of seconds; can pilot any vehicle on land, sea, or sky; can sneak expertly into guarded compounds; command the loyalty of other around, including animals; is an avid hunter and fisher; and never tires when running, swimming, or climbing. The Deputy is an incredibly capable individual.
- Action Girl: The protagonist is customizable and may be male or female.
- Affectionate Nickname: The resistance has a few for them: Rook, Kid, Dep, BroboCop.
- Alone with the Psycho: Since the Seed family want to convert the Deputy to their cause, they're frequently on the receiving end of this trope and in the "Resist" ending, they're stuck with Joseph Seed in a bomb shelter after the destruction of Hope County. In New Dawn, it's revealed that they ultimately succumbed to Seed's indoctrination and has become "The Judge", Joseph's shadow.
- Apocalypse Maiden: According to a prophecy Joseph has heard from God (the exact details of which are never really explained), the Deputy is this, as they inadvertently bring about the end of the world by attempting to fight the cult.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: They're the most dangerous thing on two legs in Hope County and they're there to bring Eden's Gate to justice one way or another. After witnessing how successful the Deputy is in beating Eden's Gate, they are appointed to be the leader.
- Badass in Distress: Considering how much of a One-Man Army the Deputy is, it's surprising how many times they are kidnapped.
- The Beastmaster: Besides recruiting Boomer, they’re able to do the same with Cheeseburger and Peaches, a grizzly bear and a cougar, respectively. It's slightly downplayed in that they were already domesticated (Or tamed in the case of Cheeseburger and Peaches) and trained animals prior to you recruiting them.
- Clothing Damage: Downplayed since the game is in first person, but when caught by John Seed, the Deputy's shirt is ripped open so that John may tattoo the name of the sin the Deputy represents. The first time, John is interrupted, although you see the ripping, the second time, John is finishing.
- Clueless Deputy: Averted. The deputy is a One-Man/One-Woman Army who leads the resistance against Eden's Gate.
- Combat Pragmatist: Nobody in Hope County fights fairly, and the Deputy is no exception. Heavily fortified position held by too many enemies for an open confrontation? Call in airstrikes to soften them up, then snipe the survivors from a safe position. Peggy about to spot you at close range? Crush their larynx, then break their neck to avoid being detected. The list goes on.
- Cowboy Cop: Any deputy who plays like a Far Cry protagonist has to have a little of this.
- Cutscene Incompetence: After you do enough damage to get the attention of one of the Seed siblings, they will always find a way to capture you outside of your control. They also won't do much of anything if a cutscene is in play usually, even if this means you have Joseph dead to rights and can arrest or finish him right then in there; instead they just stand there and let him preach and deliver the ending ultimatum.
- Do-Anything Soldier: A very justified example. They expertly use firearms, and can drive boats, cars, and fly planes and helicopters with ease. This actually makes sense: you can see Pratt and Joey flying the helicopter, which, given the presumably small size of the Sheriff’s department and the varied terrain of Hope County, means pretty much every officer needs to be able to use boats and fly helicopters, in addition to being good with a gun.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: By the end of New Dawn. With the help of the Security Captain, the Deputy (known as the Judge) now has a chance to live their life in peace with the survivors of Hope County.
- Face–Heel Turn: Aside from their Manchurian Agent status explained below, Far Cry: New Dawn all-but-confirms that Joseph Seed eventually succeeded in converting them to his cause, thus turning them into one of his lieutenants, the Judge.
- Fate Worse than Death:
- The "Resist" ending closes with the Deputy is chained inside a bunker with Joseph Seed and forced to listening to his ramblings and being indoctrinated by him as they wait through the fallout New Dawn reveals that after 17 years, the Deputy is alive but heavily brainwashed, as Joseph's shadow known only as The Judge.
- Frontline General: Leads the Resistance, and takes a proactive stance in all of their operations.
- Heroic Mime: Doesn’t say a word outside of grunts of pain. But they will offer shoulders to people in distress, affectionately pet any Fangs for Hire, clink beer bottles in celebration, fist-bump a buddy, assist a struggling woman with her parcels, showcasing the demeanor of a healthy, well-adjusted adult who is nonetheless committed to destroying the cult.
- Honorary Uncle: After the birth of Nick and Kim's child, Nick dubs them the godfather/godmother of Carmina.
- Informed Attribute: During the final confrontation with John Seed, he supposedly tattoos the Deputy's sin of wrath onto the Deputy's chest. However, an unlockable outfit allows male Deputies to go shirtless, and the tattoo is not there if he does.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: In the Walk Away Ending and Secret Ending, the Deputy chooses wisely to walk away from a fight they really can't win directly in the scheme of things. The only reason why the Walk Away Ending isn't an outright Golden Ending is that Jacob's trigger song plays on the car's radio at the last minute, leaving the team's fate up in the air.
- The Leader: Of the resistance against Eden's Gate. While several other leaders like Mary May and Vergil might manage affairs, the Deputy is the one getting things done.
- Lightning Bruiser: Consuming the Furious and Fast homeopathics together turns the Deputy into something akin to a Vanguard-style character from Mass Effect, capable of taking down whole garrisons with One-Hit Kill fist punches while running at ridiculous speed. It's neither subtle nor remotely realistic, but a disturbingly fun thing to do every now and then.
- Manchurian Agent: Thanks to Jacob's brainwashing, the song "Only You" turns them into a soldier for the cult. This leads them to kill Eli; it also plays again in the Walk Away Ending when Whitehorse turns on the radio, but we have a Smash to Black before we effectively see what happens next.
- No Name Given: Part of the Featureless Protagonist package.
- One-Man Army: The deputy is more than capable of clearing out Eden's Gate on their own.
- Pride: Joseph Seed claims that this is the Deputy's sin, rather than Wrath as John believed.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: You can choose to play as male or female, which characters will occasionally address you as sir or ma’am. However regardless the story tends to play out as if you picked the male deputy, such as having your shirt opened and chest tattooed, or being called masculine terms by characters.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: The female Junior Deputy isn't exactly tiny, but she can potentially be lugging around a light machine gun, a .50 sniper rifle, and a RAT-4 rocket launcher simultaneously.
- Sole Survivor: In the canon ending, the Deputy is the only member of the initial arrest party who ends up surviving the events of the game. Assuming the sherrif and the other deputies weren't immediately killed in the car wreck, Joseph leaves them to die of their injuries and nuclear fallout outside Dutch's bunker.
- Trauma Conga Line: The Seeds personally inflict horror after horror on the deputy ranging from getting repeatedly captured, drugged, mind-raped, mutilated, Forced to Watch friends and allies being either tortured or killed right in front of them, in one case by their own hand unwillingly and depending on the ending they either lose every friend they have left and forced to wait out the nuclear apocalypse in a bunker with the Big Bad or giving up and leaving Hope County and the Resistance to Joseph's mercy, only for said brainwashing to kick in. In the end, everything they've fought and suffered for ends up being All for Nothing. New Dawn reveals they ultimately succumbed to Seed's indoctrination and the Nukes did drop.
- Thankfully, the Walk Away Ending doesn't seem to show the Deputy murdering their colleagues; everything has a Smash to Black before we get a definitive answer on whether or not the Deputy really did kill the rest of the team.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If we go by the Book of Revelations theory, then the Deputy is this, as they unwittingly cause the Collapse by trying to fight the cult. The Seeds all appear to be aware of this, as they tell the Deputy that they're only making things worse by trying to fight them- complete with Joseph calling them out for refusing to stop and bringing about the end just before the final battle.
- Villain Takes an Interest: Despite slaughtering hundreds of their followers and repeatedly destroying their interests in Hope County, the deputy repeatedly finds themselves before each of the Seed siblings; instead of just shooting them in the head, the Seeds try to turn them over to their way of thinking.
- The Voiceless: Aside from some grunts, the Deputy is never heard talking. This was done to let the player feel more immersed as the deputy.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Players of Far Cry Primal can unlock an outfit letting the Deputy wear nothing but a loincloth (or Fur Bikini if female).
- Wrath: John believes that this is the Junior Deputy's sin, due to the fact that they are very quick to respond to situations with violence. This becomes tattooed on the Deputy's chest during the final confrontation with John.
- You Are in Command Now: Said at the end of liberating regions by Hudson after you deal with John Seed, Whitehorse after you deal with Faith.
Sheriff Earl Whitehorse
Voiced by: Christopher Heyerdahl (English)note
The sheriff of Hope County, and the Junior Deputy's immediate superior.
- The Chains of Commanding: The strain of leading the Cougars in defending the county prison against Faith's armies, as well as keeping the general populace as safe from the peggies as he can, has clearly taken its toll on him. You can tell the Deputy's timely arrival and subsequent efforts in crushing the cult took a huge weight off his shoulders.
- Cool Old Guy: By far the oldest member of the team sent to apprehend Joseph, yet the only one tough enough to escape on his own when things ended far up shit creek without a paddle. He continues to prove his badassery as the story progresses while much younger characters are found wanting.
- Driven to Suicide: During a Bliss hallucination from Faith, he is encouraged to hang himself. The Deputy rescues him before this happens.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: When claiming a brewery that is a former Cult Outpost, the Sheriff is happy that they are not cooking Bliss there anymore, and hopefully, now he can get a good beer.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Two instances: The first happens in the "Secret" ending, where he calls the operation off if the Deputy takes too long to arrest Joseph. The second happens in the "Walk Away" ending when the Deputy chooses not to confront Seed and instead leave when given the option. In the former, it's because the Deputy's extreme hesitance to cuff Seed clues him in that arresting Joseph in the middle of a compound full of his most fanatical and well-armed followers is a very bad idea, and he call it off with the intention of finding a way that isn't so blatantly suicidal. In the latter, it is with the intent to come back better prepared to handle Joseph and his remaining forces (though he doesn't account for the possibility of the Deputy getting brainwashed and turning on him).
- Manly Facial Hair: His mustache is something to be proud of. And unlike the other Deputies or Marshal Burke, Whitehorse was badass enough to escape Eden's Gate on his own.
- Married to the Job: He's divorced and has suffered from a stress related heart attack in the past.
- Meaningful Name: Joseph Seed quotes the part of Revelations which mentions describes Death following a white horse, Joseph even looks directly at him as he says “Behold it was [a] white horse”.
- Nerves of Steel: He almost never shows the strain getting to him, although he is never captured for the same length as the others. Even then, it takes a nuclear apocalypse for him to raise his voice even slightly.
- Not So Stoic: He never raises his voice even in the most stressful where everyone is yelling around them...until the "Walk Away" ending, where he yells at Hudson to get into the truck.
- Only Sane Man: He's the most rational in the team. Marshal Burke is thinking of the glory of capturing Joseph, Hudson and Pratt become enraged by their torture from Joseph's followers and start thinking irrationally. Whitehorse is the only one who catches onto the extreme danger in the secret ending and is the only one to agree with the Deputy's idea of walking away. Whitehorse has to explain that they aren't abandoning the resistance or leaving Joseph to his activities, they are actually leaving to get reinforcements from the national guard and he presumably does the same thing in the secret ending.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He clearly trusts the Junior Deputy's judgment enough to go along with it, as evidenced by how he calls for the other deputies to leave the scene in the endings where the Junior Deputy refuses to arrest Joseph, reasoning that there is a good reason for their hesitation in doing so. In the secret ending, he does this over the objections of Marshal Burke, and ignores the marshal's threats to have him and the deputies arrested for insubordination. In the "Walk Away" ending, he does this even though Deputy Hudson gives him a With Due Respect protest over how they are leaving the Resistance at Joseph's mercy. He also puts the Junior Deputy in charge of eliminating the cult after Faith is killed.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: He is the rational, calm Blue to the Marshal's Red.
- Retirony: He mentions he was planning to retire some time before the doomed raid on Joseph's compound, but ultimately didn't because he feared it would be boring. He ends up not getting the chance to go through with it in the canon ending.
- So Proud of You: He tells the Deputy as such after they destroy's Faith's bunker and liberate the Henbane River.
Marshal Cameron Burke
Voiced by: Doug Hutchison (English)note
A US Marshal, Burke is a federal agent sent to Hope County by the United States Marshals Service to arrest the head of the Project at Eden's Gate Cult, radical preacher Joseph Seed.
- Appeal to Force: He is the first to pull out his gun, and has to be reminded by both the Sheriff and Hudson to cool his heels.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: He becomes one of Faith's many mind control victims thanks to the Bliss.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: When rescued from the cult, Burke says he will simply let the Bliss run its course and expel itself from his body. Unfortunately, this doesn't work.
- Dirty Coward: He's the first of the team to regain consciousness after the helicopter crash and simply runs instead of trying to help anyone else. Then after you regroup with him and he crashes the truck you're trying to escape in, he again runs off as soon as he can, leaving you stuck in a sinking vehicle. He winds up getting caught by the Peggies and brainwashed by Faith because of this.
- Driven to Suicide: Eats his gun after killing Vergil. At Faith's urging, no less.
- Drives Like Crazy: In the intro. Of course, he's escaping from a cult that has placed roadblocks, so he's doing the best he can.
- Glory Hound: Implied. He claims that the Sheriff is about to get his name in the papers after arresting Joseph Seed in the intro. Things don't go as planned.
- Idiot Ball: Less his and more those around him, but when he's rescued from the brainwashing cult, he's allowed to keep his gun. This proves to be a poor decision.
- Meaningful Name: His surname "Burke" looks like it was based on the word "berk", which is British slang for a stupid person. Considering his arrogance, his cowardice, and overall behaviour in the prologue, this is warranted.
- The Millstone: If he had taken The Cult a bit more seriously and got the National Guard to back them up, much of the plot wouldn't have happened.
- More than Mind Control: His Bliss visions show him saying that when he was on the Bliss, he was happy for the first time in ages. And when Faith is seen talking to him, it's clear that it's more than just the drugs that's driving him.
- Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: Subverted. During a Bliss hallucination, the Marshal takes the Deputy into a rowboat, in a scene that looks exactly like the trope, but the relationship is purely platonic.
- Red Herring: He appears to be the person you're trying to rescue in Henbane River, like with Hudson and Pratt, with Whitehorse already have been saved. Then Faith gets him to off himself after striking the Hope County Jail and it's up to the player to prevent this from happening to Whitehorse.
- Too Dumb to Live: His idea of dealing with Joseph Seed involves walking into the compound of of a notoriously dangerous cult in the middle of his own territory with just a sheriff and three deputies. In Real Life, ever since Waco and the Branch Davidians, every law enforcement official has had it drummed into their heads that doing something like this is monumentally stupid.
- The Watson: Given that he's a fed sent into Hope County, he's the one who gets the exposition regarding the danger of The Cult. Too bad that he winds up being the one who underestimates them the most.
- What the Hell, Hero?: If you choose to not arrest Seed in the intro of the game, Burke will declare that he'll have you all arrested. Whether he could actually do that is another thing, since the sheer amount of rules he broke by having Hope County S.O. directly confront Joseph Seed as they did broke so many law enforcement rules he'd be lucky to be a rent-a-cop by the time the justice system is done with him.
Deputy Joey Hudson
That was a hell of a job, Rook. The way I see it, you're in charge now.
Voiced by: Luisa D'Oliveira (English)note
Deputy Hudson is one of the three Hope County Sheriff Deputies sent with US Marshal Burke to arrest Joseph Seed and the pilot of the chopper going in.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She's pretty beaten up when held captive by John. After John's death and her release, she's back to normal and has no scars.
- Bound and Gagged: She's always seen like this for as long as she's in John's captivity.
- Braids of Action: She wears a French braid (practical given her job and her hair's length), and, barring the Player Character, is the most action-y.
- Break the Cutie: Not once but twice:
- She is tortured by John under Joseph's supervision, and this has so broken her that she tries to stab the Deputy for a good half minute before recognizing them.
- In the Walk Away Ending, she is horrified at the Deputy and Whitehorse's decision to seemingly abandon Hope County to the cult, though she rapidly snaps out of it once Whitehorse tells her they’ll go back with reinforcements.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: One of many victims of John Seed's particular brand of insanity. From the looks of her, she mainly suffered brutal beatings. At least there's no mention of John having tattooed and flayed her like he did with so many others.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She had her own burdens to bear even before the Peggies came knocking on Hope County. Her partner was killed during a traffic stop gone wrong, and she feels responsible for his death for not being prepared.
- Damsel in Distress: Kidnapped and held hostage by John Seed, who enjoys torturing her on his video broadcasts.
- Damsel out of Distress: After the Deputy deals with John Seed, she will break free of the silo and help the Deputy blow it and free the prisoners.
- Defiant Captive: One of her defining traits. John Seed's psychotic cruelty scares her as much as anyone else, but she never once gives in to him, to the point that John has to tie her to a rolling chair to keep her under control. When the Deputy raids John's bunker to rescue her, they find her in the midst of an escape of her own that almost gets them shanked for their trouble. The two promptly team up to rescue the other captives and burn John's complex to the ground.
- Gender-Blender Name: The less improbable case among the two named deputies.
- I Owe You My Life: After John Seed is killed, she states that she's got the Deputy's back no matter what for rescuing her.
- Last-Name Basis: She's only called "Joey" in two places: A random male NPC in Falls End, and in the credits.
- The Men First: Non-military example. She refuses to escape John's bunker before all his other captives have been rescued as well.
- My Greatest Failure: Her backstory involved a routine patrol with her former partner, Danny. He was handling a simple speeding ticket while Hudson was drinking a milkshake. But the driver's opened fire, and Danny died because Hudson wasn't prepared. She blames herself for this.
- With Due Respect: She gives one of these to Sheriff Whitehorse in the "Walk Away" ending, attacking his decision to not overrule the Junior Deputy's choice to leave Joseph be and not arrest him, as it entails leaving the Resistance at the cult leader's mercy.
- What the Hell, Hero?: She calls out Sheriff Whitehorse and the Junior Deputy should the latter elect not to arrest Joseph in the "Walk Away" ending, for leaving the Resistance in his clutches.
- Wrench Wench: For a sheriff's deputy she's surprisingly handy with military computing hardware. After the Deputy finds her in John's missile silo bunker, she immediately offers to facilitate their escape and that of all the other captives by releasing the bunker lockdown from the command center. She then figures out how to control pretty much the entire facility in just a few minutes, on hostile territory, while everything's exploding around her.
- You Are in Command Now: She's technically the Deputy's senior, but after seeing how John Seed was defeated and Holland Valley liberated because of the Deputy's deeds, she remarks that the Deputy deserves to be in charge, and she will follow orders despite her seniority.
Deputy Staci Pratt
Voiced by: Julian Bailey (English)note
Deputy Pratt is one of the Hope County Sheriff Deputies sent with a US Marshal to arrest Joseph Seed and the one who stayed in the chopper as the rest went to arrest Seed.
- Analogy Backfire: After all the time Jacob breaking him into believing that he is weak, after getting free he grabs a machine gun while saying Jacob's analogy that the weak must be culled, except this time it is the cultists who are weak and he is there to cull them.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The player never sees what happens to Pratt after he helps the Deputy escape Jacob's compound, but the first time Pratt is seen afterwards, his face is bloody.
- Defiant Captive: At first. When he's nabbed by the cult, Pratt kicks and fights however futilely. Jacob puts an end to this pretty quickly.
- Despair Event Horizon: When met again, he has been completely mentally broken by Jacob.
- Distressed Dude: Gets abducted by the cult and is passed off to Jacob Seed.
- Gender-Blender Name: Both deputies have them, but his is particularly confusing. If you just read their names and know one is female and the other is male, you'd probably assume he's the woman.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Non-fatal example: Pratt hears the Mind-Control Music that he and the Deputy are subject too. Before the pain overtakes him, Pratt manages to shove the Deputy onto the roof of a semi-truck leaving Jacob's compound, so that the Deputy is also unaffected. This earns him a great deal of pain from Jacob.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Tragic variant. He views himself as weak because of Jacob's mental torture.
- Heroic Willpower: He gains enough sense of self to help the Deputy escape from Jacob after one of the Seed's torture sessions.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: He doesn’t like Boomer or Cheeseburger, but is very affectionate towards Peaches the cougar.
- Last-Name Basis: He mentions his first name when Jacob forces him to read a taped confession. Otherwise, everyone calls him "Pratt"
- Laughing Mad: When freed by the Deputy following Jacob's death, Pratt will laugh maniacally while smashing several televisions with a hammer.
- Mind Rape: Courtesy of Jacob Seed. He moves around him, dutifully attending him like a manservant. Even after Jacob's death, he's still very shaken.
- Perma-Stubble: Isn't clean shave but doesn't quite have a beard growing.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He panics during the "Walk Away" ending, frightened about going back and getting the National Guard and coming back to deal with Joseph.
- Shouting Shooter: After released he picks up a machine gun and fire at the Cultists' equipment while shouting in the same way as Rambo.
- The Dog Bites Back: After being freed, he grabs a machine gun and goes on a rampage as he escapes.
- You Are in Command Now: Just like Hudson, Pratt is the Deputy's superior. But following Pratt's mental break and the Deputy's capable actions, Pratt remarks that the Deputy is the strongest, and is thus the leader. As such Pratt will follow commands.
Nancy
The dispatcher of the Hope County Sheriff’s Office.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She portrays herself as an elderly woman afraid of harm coming to the Sheriff’s office, when in reality she’s a cultist afraid that Joseph will be harmed instead.
- First-Episode Twist: She’s a member of Eden's Gate, illustrating just how powerful the cult is and how easily they can infiltrate pretty much anything, ensuring nobody will come rescue Burke and the Sheriffs.
- Karma Houdini: We never see her suffer any sort of punishment for her actions. Let’s just hope she died when the nukes fell.
- Small Role, Big Impact: By being the only line to the outside world, she ensures you will never be able to call for help, and has less than five minutes of screen time.
- The Voice: Only heard over the radio.
- Wham Line: After the chopper crash early on, she makes it abundantly clear nobody is coming to save you.Joseph: Dispatch, everything is just fine here. No need to call anyone.Dispatch: Yes, Father. Praise be to you.
The Resistance
After the local authorities turned a blind eye to the escalating activities of the Project at Eden's Gate, the Resistance, an armed resistance movement and private militia, was formed by residents of Hope County to oppose them. They are led by the Junior Deputy, and can be broadly divided into three groups, the members who reside in Fall's End, situated in Holland Valley, the Whitetail Militia, located in the Whitetail Mountains, and the Hope County Cougars, found in the Henbane River region. Richard "Dutch" Roosevelt
Voiced by: John Tench (English)note
A survivalist and prepper who lives on an island, and the uncle of Jess. Dutch serves to help the Deputy learn the basics of fighting back.
- Alliterative Name: Richard Roosevelt, though he's more commonly addressed by his nickname, Dutch.
- Big Damn Heroes: This is cruelly subverted in the "Resist" ending. After the nuclear bomb goes off, Dutch tells the Deputy and the other officers take refuge in his bunker. After the sheriff and the other deputies die in a car crash, Joseph gets the drop on Dutch and murders him, leaving himself and the Deputy as the bunker's only living occupants.
- Crazy-Prepared: He deliberately moved to Montana since the coasts were the most vulnerable to potential enemy attack or natural disasters, and proceeded to build an elaborate bunker complex under an fairly isolated island. This put him in a much better position to ride out the emergence of the Project Eden cult. His bunker ends up allowing Joseph and the Deputy to survive the nuclear war.
- Cool Old Guy: He's easily one of the oldest characters of the cast, but he's pretty friendly to the Deputy, and is willing to serve as their guide to help reclaim Hope County from the Peggies.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: If you choose the Resist ending, you find him dead on the floor beside you when the Deputy regains consciousness after Joseph Seed dragged them into Dutch's bunker. It isn't specified how Joseph killed him, but since that ending is canon, he doesn't return for New Dawn.
- Grumpy Old Man: He has a long history of having legal disputes with the Hope County government, as he stubbornly wants to be left alone on his property.
- Mission Control: He's the voice on the radio telling the Deputy what to do for story missions.
- Properly Paranoid: He's nervous that world is on the brink of nuclear war, although his prepping is far more restrained than Joseph's.
Falls End
The members of the Resistance who live in the town of Fall's End in the Holland Valley region, and who oppose John. They use the Spread Eagle Bar as a hub, where Mary coordinates their activities. Pastor Jerome Jeffries
Click to see him in New Dawn.
Voiced by: Martin Roach (English)note
[Jesus] said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.
—Luke 22:36-38, NIV
A Gulf War veteran turned Roman Catholic priest. He used to be a friend of Joseph Seed, until the man stole his congregation and tried to have Jerome beaten to death. Jerome survived and joined the Resistance, determined to take Hope County back and protect the cult's would-be victims.
- Alliterative Name: Jerome Jeffries.
- Badass Boast: He delivers one in his character trailer before loading his shotgun and leaving his church to shoot some peggies.Jerome: Woe to the man who leads my flock astray. For if I am not their shepherd... then... I must be... the wolf.
- Badass Preacher: A Roman Catholic priest (if his habit is anything to go by) and is a highly trained marksman. Even moreso in New Dawn, where he's one of the Guns For Hire.
- The Berserker: Come New Dawn, he goes berserk in combat and chews the scenery.
- Canon Discontinuity: The short film The Baptism released before Far Cry 5's launch seems to show Jerome had a daughter who joined the cult, and was killed when being baptised by Joseph who drowns her while in some sort of trance. This doesn't match up with any backstory in the game itself or New Dawn.
- Chekhov's Gun: His fake Bible with a gun hidden in it. He and Nick use it as a trick to get the drop on John.
- Combat Medic: He's got a shotgun and is not afraid to use it, but he also stitches up Nick after John cuts the "Greed" tattoo off of Nick's chest.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: In his character trailer, Jerome notes that if they had listened to the people of Hope County when they needed their help, Joseph would have had less success in amassing most of his cultists.
- Crisis of Faith: Briefly underwent one in New Dawn.
- God Before Dogma: A heroic Catholic priest to offset Joseph Seed's evil cult leader. He even states in one of the trailers that Joseph's falsehoods have "driven (the people of Hope County) from the righteous path".
- Good Shepherd: He's a much more benevolent priest than Joseph, though Good Is Not Soft in his case.
- Large Ham: In New Dawn, while he is normally calm, in combat he flies into a rage and become as hammy as Longinus.
- Lust: Implied to be his sin judging by the perfumed, anonymous letter from the recipient's former lover found in his church and how small his wound is (lust being the shortest of the 7 sins).
- Playing with Fire: In New Dawn, his abilities center around tossing molotov cocktails and using Dragon's Breath ammo, in this effect acting as a replacement for Sharky.
- Scary Black Man: For the most part, Pastor Jerome is a friendly Good Shepherd. But in New Dawn, he goes into a screaming gun-shooting rage whenever he joins combat with the Highwaymen.
- Sexy Priest: If that one perfumed letter left in his church is anything to go by, at least one woman finds Jerome attractive. Probably to do with that low voice.
- Shirtless Captives: He's stripped to the waist when held captive by John.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: His weapon is pump-action shotgun.
- Sole Survivor: He's the only one of the regional resistance leaders who isn't killed by the time their respective Herald is defeated.
- Specs of Awesome: He wears normal glasses in contrast to Joseph's creepy yellow sunglasses. By the time of New Dawn, he's stopped wearing them.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A black Badass Preacher who carries tons of guns makes him vaguely similar to Longinus, though he's a lot more mentally stable, and he's not an arms dealer.
- Took a Level in Badass: In New Dawn he becomes a Gun for Hire rather than just an NPC.
- Twofer Token Minority: By merit of being a Black Catholic priest deep in Protestant rural Montana.
- We Used to Be Friends: Joseph was new to town and originally was friendly with Jerome based on their shared faith in the Lord. It turns tragic shortly thereafter.
Mary May Fairgrave
Voiced by: Tasya Teles (English)note
The current owner and bartender of The Spread Eagle Bar, Mary May desires revenge against the Seed family and Eden's Gate for destroying her family and driving her father to suicide. With little left to lose, she decides to help The Junior Deputy and The Resistance at any opportunity. Before the Deputy arrived, her role was coordinating Resistance activities.
- Action Girl: Downplayed. She can handle herself, and picks up a machine gun when rescued during the liberation of Falls End, but gets kidnapped along with the Deputy.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: She is blonde in the game but has brown hair in the novel Absolution.
- Badass Driver: After the climax in the Falls End church, Mary grabs her gun and helps secure the building. Without missing a beat, she then chases a wounded John in a van with the Deputy acting as the gunner. And then when she arrives, she serves as the Deputy's partner to secure the airstrip so the Deputy can chase down John.
- The Bartender: She runs a bar and has the attitude down pat.
- Bus Crash: Supposedly in the Resist ending timeline. Letters she left behind in New Dawn say she got sick and notes supposedly from Grace and Tracey indicate that it was fatal.
- The Cameo: She is briefly seen in the opening minutes of the prequel in the Spread Eagle Bar, serving Nick some whiskey.
- Cool Car: Her father used to sow fear in the peggies' hearts with the Widowmaker, a massive big rig with forward-facing machine guns. He bequeathed it to Mary May before the peggies stole it, so she asks you to get it back and lets you drive it at any time afterwards.
- Death by Despair: Tracey believes that this is what ultimately did Mary May in; She was already suffering from radiation poisoning due to not taking shelter in a bunker, but when it became clear that Fall's End was completely destroyed by the bombs and there was no bringing it back, she simply lost the will to live and passed away.
- Daddy's Girl: Positive portrayal, Mary idolizes her late father, and one of her missions involves getting his truck back from the cult.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Various notes left around Hope County in Far Cry: New Dawn reveal that Mary May survived the Collapse, but died some time between the two games. Eventually it is revealed that she refused to seek shelter from the bombs in order to assist others trapped outside, and died of the resulting radiation poisoning.
- Dude Magnet: She’s noted to be popular with the fellas. This can be seen with resistance banter, where one guy wonders if she’s single and recalls another guy expressing interest. Sharky also mentions Hurk having a crush on her.
- Family Business: Her father and his father before him ran the Spread Eagle. She's continuing the tradition.
- Good Parents: Mary certainly thinks so of her dad, and clearly, her father raised her to know right from wrong and to never give up without a fight.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Contrasting Faith Seed, Mary May is a golden-haired pillar of the Fall's End community who would go to any lengths to protect those close to her.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Her refusal to seek shelter from the nuclear bombs in order to help other refugees caught outside results in her contracting radiation sickness and dying.
- Hero of Another Story: Her efforts to save her family from the cult are detailed in a prequel novel.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Although they're wearier than most.
- Saloon Owner: The Spread Eagle is her bar, after all. She's also quite connected around town, as she was in charge of coordinating and organizing the Resistance to ensure operations ran smoothly.
- Stuff Blowing Up: In her reveal trailer, Mary May is putting her supplies and knowledge to great use in using her booze to make improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails.
- You Monster!: Delivers this to John when he gets a cultist to Pistol Whip Jerome to the floor after the priest initially refuses to repeat the former's words when forced to officiate a confession to Nick.
The Whitetail Militia
A faction of the Resistance led by Eli, the Whitetail Militia is a large doomsday prepper group situated in Whitetail Mountains, who focus on opposing Jacob's activities in the region. Eli Palmer
Voiced by: Patrick Garrow (English)note
Eli is the leader of the Whitetail Militia, a large doomsday prepper group situated in Whitetail Mountains. After the failed attempt of Marshal Burke and the local sheriff force to arrest Joseph Seed, Eli quickly found his militia at war with Jacob Seed's fanatical cultists, with Eden's Gate clearly having the upper hand in the local war.
- Big Good: For the Whitetail Mountains Region.
- Boom, Headshot!: How he is canonically killed, as while Jacob speaks to the Deputy after Eli is shot, there is a huge hole in Eli's forehead.
- Foil: In some ways he's one to Joseph, a fellow bearded doomsday prepper who is far better-equipped, and more willing to infringe on people's rights to get them to safety.
- Platonic Life-Partners: With Tammy. Reportedly, he vouched for her to join the Whitetails. They are close and respect each other, but nothing sexual seems to be implied.
- Pretty Little Headshots: Eli's wounds are surprisingly clean. Of course, the Deputy is hallucinating while this happens.
- Properly Paranoid: Is slightly suspicious of the Deputy, who is in fact struggling with brainwashing.
- Sacrificial Lion: Is the victim of the Deputy based on being under Jacob's manipulations.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: The only Resistance member aside from Jess Black to wield a compound bow instead of guns.
Tammy Barnes
Voiced by: Sarah Booth (English)note
- Crusading Widower: Widow, but fits the trope to a T. The death of her husband spurred her to join the Whitetails, and she ensures the place that broke him will be destroyed.
- Housewife: Jacob derisively refers to Tammy as one.
- It's Personal: She feels this way towards Jacob after her husband was tortured to death in his chalet, but doubly so after the Junior Deputy unintentionally kills Eli under the influence of Jacob's Mind-Control Music. By that point, she simply wants to see Jacob dead.
- Properly Paranoid: When Eli brings the recently brainwashed Deputy into the Wolf's Den, she is mistrustful of them. Her suspicions are validated when the Deputy, under Jacob's control, later guns down a number of Whitetails, including Eli.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She's wary of working with the Deputy. But when the Deputy helps her out, she mellows out.
- Viking Funeral: Not her, but she lights the fire for Eli's after Jacob's death.
Wheaty
Voiced by: Phillip Nozuka (English)note
- Blood Knight: He seems to really like the killings. His calls for blood after Jacob is dead might be understandable, but still a bit unsettling.
- Collection Sidequest: You give him the vinyl crates found around town to help him be a DJ after completing Tammy's first quest.
- Token Minority: He's the only Native American character in the game.
- You Monster!: He states this when the Deputy is manipulated into killing Eli. Particularly since he stood up for the Deputy in the beginning when Tammy wanted to take no chances. After the death of Jacob, Wheaty calms down and apologizes to the Deputy.
The Hope County Cougars
A baseball team turned militia, the Hope County Cougars are a Resistance faction led by Vergil who use the county's jail as a stronghold. Based in the Henbane River region, they focus their energies on taking down Faith, including disabling her ability to produce and distribute Bliss. Tracey Lader
Voiced by: Beryl Bain (English)note
A high ranking member of the Cougars, Tracey helps Virgil and the Sherriff coordinate from the Hope County Jail
- Fire-Forged Friends: She meets the Deputy when they work together to defend the jail she's held up in. She becomes close to them immediately after, although the Sheriff's recommendation certainly helped. It's implied she and the Sheriff were the same way.
- The Ghost: Is this in New Dawn. She leaves behind a collection of photographs that The Captain must find out the origin of in a sidequest. She also leaves behind a journal entry at each location dictating her escape from Hope County.
- No Social Skills: She does not know how to talk to others. She is, however, aware of this, and apologizes for it.
- Pietà Plagiarism: The way she holds Vergil's body. Interestingly, in this case, it is the daughter-figure holding her father-type, rather than the mother/son of the original.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Done as she futilely tries to save Vergil.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Downplayed in that she and Vergil can actually get along, but they snipe at each other a lot. She is in utter despair when he dies, though.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Tracey tends to be really laid back when compared to the duty minded Sheriff or the fussy Vergil. In fact, she seems to care more about stopping Faith than killing her, possibly because they were former friends when Faith went by Rachel Jessop. But when Faith uses the Marshal to kill Vergil, Tracey completely snaps and wants Faith to be murdered.
- Tragic Keepsake: After Vergil is killed by Marshall Burke, Tracey takes his Hope County Cougars pin and keeps it for herself.
- Walking the Earth: After the Collapse, she wanders Hope County, visiting landmarks and leaving notes with pictures of how the landmarks looked before the Collapse. One of the notes implies that she left the county not long after to "live blissfully alone."
- We Used to Be Friends: She had a friend named Rachel who joined the cult. Rachel is actually the current Faith.
Vergil Minkler
Voiced by: Bob Bainborough (English)note
Former mayor of Falls End, he's been leading the Resistance against Faith from the Hope County Jail.
- Bumbling Dad: He sort of has this energy throughout your interactions with him, plus his family life is a fairly prominent part of his character.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: He's really keen on getting people to wear the "Hope County Cougars" pins.
- Establishing Character Moment: He snipes with Tracey, wonders why she's not wearing her Cougar button, and then, after introducing himself to the Deputy, hands him a button and goes on his work.
- Good Parents: He tried his damndest to be a good father to his son. Unfortunately, he is hooked on Bliss.
- Iconic Item: He's pretty keen on the Hope County Cougar buttons, and gets pretty fussy when Tracey doesn't wear hers. When he is killed, Tracey takes his and keeps it with her.
- It's Personal: He opposes Faith in part because she destroyed his son and his marriage. It's implied from the way he talks during quests that his son got completely hooked on Bliss.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Downplayed. He's in charge of the Hope County Cougars, but he's ditzy and eccentric, particularly when compared to Sheriff Whitehorse and Tracey. However, he does provide a very sensible mission to stop Faith's Angels from poisoning the town's water supply with Bliss, then taking out the lead guy who cooks the drug, as well as chasing down and destroying vehicles distributing Bliss.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: He wields a shotgun during the defense of the jail.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Tracey, although he does like her.
Doctor Charles Lindsay
Voiced by: Farid Yazdani (English)note
A veterinarian turned trauma surgeon, Charles is working on a way to create chemical compounds so that the Angels can be herded and avoided.
- Ambiguously Gay: Talking with Minkler reveals that whenever he brings up the topic of starting a family to Dr. Lindsay, the latter gets very uncomfortable and changes the subject.
- Genius Ditz: He can come up with an effective formula against the Angels. He just needs to remember to add all of the ingredients to his mixture.
- Non-Action Guy: Unlike the World of Badass residents of Hope County, Dr. Lindsay doesn't really showcase his talents unless he's directly attacked.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: He is a veterinarian, not a doctor, and remarks his previous duties were helping to birth calves. But he does his job with gusto.
- Super Drowning Skills: Discussed. He can't swim, so the cult threw his supplies at the bottom of a hot spring so he couldn't get them.
Guns for Hire
Nick Rye
King of the Skies.
Click to see him in New Dawn.
Voiced by: Steve Byers (English)note
"Hey. I'm Nick Rye. And I've fucking had it with that cult. Now I've got a baby on the way and I don't want my kid calling Joseph Seed 'The Father'. That's me. I'll be his father. Carmina and me, we are both ready to join the resistance. Carmina's my plane, but we're a package deal. Look, you'll get the best pilot, and the best plane in the whole County. She's a beaut, ain't she? Got the minigun, I'll make it rain on all those damn Peggies. You need some shock and awesomeness? Guess what? I got big old bombs! I'm ready to hit those damn Peggies hard. You say the word and I will fight by your side."
Fights for his family
- Ace Pilot: He's a lifelong bush pilot and crop duster who hails from a family of military airmen, and once you get in his good books, you can call him up to provide great air support. During the final confrontation with John Seed, despite having part of his chest skinned, he's immediately raring to hop in Carmina and help you battle John in a two-on-one dogfight.
- The Cameo: He is briefly seen in the opening minutes of the prequel in the Spread Eagle Bar, being served a whiskey by Mary.
- Cool Plane: Carmina, a lovely old Kimberlite HP floatplanenote that was bought by Nick's Grandfather after World War Two. At some point, the plane was upgraded with a belly mounted Gatling gun and bomb racks, which Nick (or the player) use to devastating effect.
- Death from Above: Once recruited, Nick and Carmilia can be called in for strafing or bombing runs.“Hello! My name’s mister death from above!”
- Family Man: He initially wanted to leave Hope County with his wife so he can protect her and their unborn baby but Kim is able to talk him into staying and joining the fight.
- Flaying Alive: John tattoos "Greed" onto his chest, and then cuts out the skin the tattoo was on, pinning it to the wall of Jerome's church.
- Gatling Good: His plane mounts the only gatling cannon in the entirety of Hope County. All other machine guns are just that: machine guns.
- Glass Cannon: Can deal epic amounts of damage but is highly vulnerable to mounted machine guns.
- Happily Married: There are a number of scenes with him showing great affection for his pregnant wife Kim and his daughter-on-the-way.
- Henpecked Husband: As much as he loves his family, you can see that Kim is the dominant one in the marriage.
- Hero of Another Story: He is the player character of the Lost on Mars DLC.
- I Call It "Vera": His plane is named Carmina. And by the time of New Dawn, so is his daughter.
- Martial Pacifist: He refused to follow in his father and grandfather's footsteps by becoming a military pilot. As he points out in his Resistance trailer, though...Nick: I may never have gone to war... but if them fuckin' Peggies come after my family... (mounts a Gatling gun on his plane) I sure as hell will give 'em one.
- Papa Wolf: Nick's got a baby on the way, and damned if he ain't going to do everything he can to keep his family safe from those cultists.
- Promoted to Playable: He's the protagonist of the Lost on Mars DLC, which has him fighting aliens on Mars while trying to find Hurk's Junknote .
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At first, Nick wants to leave Hope County because staying means fighting, and the thought of his child growing up fatherless is terrifying. His wife, however, convinces him to stay. 17 years later in New Dawn, they're still there.
- Shirtless Captives: During the "Wrath" mission, Nick will be caught by the cult, and have "GREED" forcibly tattoed on his chest. Obviously, his shirt is removed before doing so.
- Spiteful Spit: To John when held captive at the plinth of Holland Valley's final mission.
- The Engineer: Specifically of the Mechanic variety. Planes are his forte, to the point he worked out how to attach and make functional a Gatling gun and tactical bomb holsters on the wings of his crop-duster. By the time of New Dawn, due to wear and tear (especially the implied year(s) forced to work for the Highwaymen), the destruction of Hope County forcing reliance on ethanol rather than gasoline, coupled with having his wife and daughter to think about, Nick hangs up his aviator's cap and settles for working in the Prosperity garage fixing up their vehicles, which includes his precious "Carmina" which by then has lost its wings but gained treads making it useful for on-land amphibious driving.
Jess Black
Master Huntress
Voiced by: Julie Nathanson (English)note
"Jess Black here. Listen, everybody's got a talent. Mine is putting arrows through the heads of people who want to kill me. I'm good at this. I'm really good at this. They won't see me coming. Won't hear me either. Animals, too. They can sense an apex predator. They won't mess with me. I don't screw around. I'm joining the resistance."
Fights for Revenge
A survivalist and hunter who can be freed from the cult in the Whitetail Mountains. She is Dutch's niece. She recruits the Deputy to help her kill the Cook, a flamethrower-wielding cultist who wronged her in the past. Jess uses a compound bow and is a stealth expert.
- Arch-Nemesis: The Cook, her recruitment mission's Arc Villain, is both a sick fuck in his own right and heavily implied to have burned Jess' parents alive before her eyes. No wonder she wants him dead.
- Arrows on Fire: Jess uses Incendiary Arrows against tough enemies, as well as vehicles.
- Best Served Cold: Downplayed. She wants to kill the Cook because It's Personal to her, but also because he is a member of the cult and hurts other people.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Her non-combat chatter is mostly quiet and subdued, but make no mistake: Jess is easily the most vicious specialist in the Deputy's roster. Even the other companions are wary of her, if not downright terrified.
- Blood Knight: She admits to being addicted to killing peggies, but hey, at least it's not drugs, right?
- Broken Bird: Downplayed. Dutch claims she's one, but Jess is fairly well-adjusted, if terse, with the Deputy, possibly because the Deputy helps Jess get her revenge.
- Cold Ham: Most of her lines are spoken in a low, menacing voice, except for her combat taunts. Those are exclusively hate-filled screams and curses.
- Cold Sniper: She has the personality, though she uses a bow rather than a sniper rifle. She is just as capable as Grace at shooting the pilot of a flying helicopter.
- Dark Action Girl: Easily the darkest of your nine companions for a number of reasons, and the only one who seems to actively enjoy all the killing she does. She'd actually make a pretty good villain or dragon if she had ended up joining the peggies.
- Deadpan Snarker: Pair her with Hurk or Sharky, and watch the fireworks fly.
- Doesn't Like Guns: She dislikes guns because she considers them noob tools. A real killer wields a bow.
- Friend to All Living Things: One of her two special abilities is that all animals treat her as friendly, so she'll never be attacked by non-Judge predators. This is slightly ironic given her skill as a hunter.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Her face is seriously messed up from wounds both recent and old. It's implied the latter are souvenirs from the Cook.
- It's Personal: It's not immediately clear, but Jess's story about how the Cook got his nickname starts off with her referring to a nebulous family that he slaughtered. Near the end however, she slips up and starts using possessive pronouns when referring to the "kids" and it becomes very clear that she was the kid the Cook was tormenting.
- Odd Friendship: Out of all the Guns for Hire, Jess gets along the best with Grace, despite her dislike of guns and authority. Jess respects Grace's open-mindedness and shares very similar views on the war against Eden's Gate.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: She has one of the foulest mouths in a world filled to the brim with foul-mouthed folks. Especially funny in combat since she, the resident Stealth Expert, tends to scream curses at the top of her lungs without pause from the moment she starts attacking.Jess: Fuck you, you fucking fucks!
- Screaming Warrior: For someone who's all about stealth, Jess gets awfully vocal in combat. Not that any Peggie cares.
- Stealth Expert: She is the only human companion who uses silent weapons, and while all characters will stay in stealth if undetected, Jess is the only long-range stealth expert.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: Wields a compound bow to lethal effect against enemies that almost exclusively use guns.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
- She really does not like Adelaide but it's fairly one-sided, as most of her insults tend to amuse Adelaide more than anything. Nonetheless, they found common ground on their shared hatred for Eden's Gate.
- Downplayed with Hurk and Sharky. While she clearly sees them as idiots, she sometimes gives them advice and compliments them when they agree on something. Hurk even gets surprised when Jess agreed with him about the state of the world.
- Terse Talker: When compared with the very chatty other Guns for Hire, Jess is very blunt.
- Trick Arrow: She often uses fire arrows against enemies she can't kill in one hit. Even when she and those enemies are standing in something flammable.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: She doesn’t feel any different after killing the Cook.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Jess' fate in New Dawn isn't specified or explained.
- Where Is Your X Now?: "Where's your Father now, huh?"
Hurk Drubman Jr.
Just Dangerously Stupid
Click to see him in New Dawn.
Voiced by: Dylan Taylor (English)note
"What up Hurkamaniacs! It's your boy, Hurk. Back to where I was born and raised then I meet these Eden's Gate dipshits, and they think they can do whatever they want? No. You want me to turn some wheels into scrap metal? You point, and I'll shoot, man. Point. Shoot. Point. Shoot. Point shoot. Point shoot point shoot point shoot point shoot, fuck! I love shooting things, man. Come on, you know I do, I got a passion for it. It lives in my balls and it bubbles up to my guts! What about moving targets? Don't you worry, your boy Hurk's got them heat-seeking missiles, too! But real talk, on a spiritual level, I'm the only person here with a direct line to the Monkey King up above. So if you want a Grade-A American badass who's blessed by the monkeys, I'm right here for ya."
Fights for Hurk. And Beer.
- Born Lucky: By the events of New Dawn, Hurk has not only managed to survive the largely lawless, pirate-infested Rook islands and an active civil war in Kyrat, but also a nuclear bomb detonating near Hope County. He manages to take it a step further by not only faring well against the Highwaymen, but even found a girlfriend among them, Gina Guerra and got her pregnant with his son.
- Brain Uploading: After getting his body cut into pieces, Nick has to transfer Hurk's conscious into a robot body dubbed "Brobot" as his Gun for Hire until Nick find and assembles the remaining pieces.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Or the Old Woman, that is. He chews out his mother for leaving his father and being vindictive with the way she seized assets during her divorce. Adelaide remarks that he's only heard his father's side of the story, but refuses to indulge him as he's made up his mind on how to feel about the issue.
- Casanova Wannabe: He wishes women paid him as much attention as he thinks they do. He even admits that his desire to score is what got him in trouble in the Lost on Mars DLC.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Hurk isn't all there in the head.
- Deep South: Despite the fact that we now know Hurk's from Montana, he still talks like a Southern redneck.
- Demolitions "Expert": Wields a rocket launcher (that can shoot multiple times without reloading, for some reason) as his default weapon.
- Expy: As of the Lost on Mars DLC, where he loses his body and has his brain put into a robot chassis. Being loud, weird, violent, friendly, annoying, and endearing all at the same time, while also behaving like a gigantic manchild with a Southern accent makes him a bizarrely on-the-nose parody of both Scooter and Claptrap simultaneously.
- Friendly Address Privileges: He calls anyone he meets "dude" or "bro", "regardless of their vagitalia or penilenessness."
- Good Parents: In New Dawn, he's a surprisingly caring father to little Blade Drubman. A lot nicer than Hurk's father was to him.
- Half-Witted Hillbilly: Yep, that's Hurk in a nutshell.
- Hidden Depths: He admits to having a crush on Faith Seed and he has an admirable perspective on relationships. He says that you shouldn't expect perfection from everyone and flaws make a relationship interesting. Since this is coming from Hurk, of all people, this is unexpected.
- He also proudly admits that he loves Shakespearean plays.
- He also seems to know about his family's Wenja ancestry.
- Losing Your Head: Hurk has his body cut into pieces in Lost on Mars and when Nick first meets him, all that is left of Hurk is his still talking and floating head on a robot.
- Manchild: He is in his late forties but still acts like a hyperactive child having too much fun with the guns he carries. He's somewhat more mature in New Dawn, thanks to being a father now, but he's still a quirky character (he literally named his son after Blade!).
- Mr. Vice Guy: Dumber than a stump and just a bit of a lout, Hurk is nevertheless one of the friendliest characters in Hope County and, over the course of the game, he shows a touching loyalty to The Deputy (and later The Captain).
- Nice Guy: As dumb as Hurk sometimes is, he's generally a very warm and laid-back person in his interactions with the Deputy (in sharp contrast to his bigoted, hatemongering father).
- Nobody's That Dumb: At the end of Lost on Mars, Anne beg Hurk not to kill her by confessing her love for him. After seeing how much she had lied to him, Hurk doesn't believe her at all and allows Nick to finish her off.
- Once per Episode: He has shown up in the Rook Islands and Kyrat, and his ancestor Urki showed up in Oros. Now he's come back home to Hope County, ready to free his homeland. Surprisingly, he keeps boxes of souvenirs from the places he's traveled. Including Oros despite it technically no longer existing.
- Religious Bruiser: An unorthodox one. He's apparently a devotee of the Monkey King ever since he visited Kyrat, and is planning on starting his own cult, which will largely center on drugs, booze, and women.
- Robosexual: Hurk is easily charmed by Anne, an Artificial Intelligence from Mars and spends most of the DLC trying to woo her. Fortunately, he eventually gets over this when he finally realizes what Anne's real intentions are.
- Stout Strength: Combine the county's largest paunch with the game's heaviest weapon, and you have Hurk.
- Unfriendly Fire: Being the moron he is, Hurk has apparently never heard of something called blast radius, which can have predictably devastating consequences in a world brimming with targets that love to charge you in melee.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: More like Wearing A Flag On Your Pants, as you can tell by the Fashionable Asymmetry of Hurk's trousers.
- Weirdness Magnet: In an interaction with Jess Black, she points out how Hurk always finds himself in the middle of a war or insurrection. Half the time, it seems Hurk is just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Turns out all our favorite dumbass wants is to make his dad proud. Too bad daddy doesn't reciprocate.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: in New Dawn he named his son Blade after the movie character, which the mother Gina gives him some shit for.
Adelaide Drubman
The Chopper Queen
Voiced by: Jane Wheeler (English)note
"Well, hey there. I'm Adelaide Drubman. Businesswoman and oh so much more, sweetheart. These cult fuck nuggets are making it hard to build up my business. Nobody stands between me and my dreams. Call me, and I'll be there with my chopper. Hot and ready to go like a bride on her wedding day. I'll bring the good guns, too. The kind with the big-ass clips that are illegal in Canada. I'm joining the resistance. You can thank me later, darling."
Fights because no one tells her what to do.
Hurk's mother, who owns a local real estate business and will fly a helicopter to fight the cult. She is much, much saner than her son or nephew.
- Affectionate Nickname: She's Addie to her friends.
- All Women Are Lustful: She openly lusts after her young squeeze, Xander. And openly compliments his rear while he does yoga.
- Amazon Brigade: Adelaide was part of a women's helicopter club with a crude name. They all joined the cult, so Adelaide is perfectly fine with the Deputy killing them.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: She comments that Xander's nethers are bigger than his brains, and that suits her just fine.
- Country Matters: She calls her former chopper club girls "thundercunts" when she sends the Deputy to get her beloved helicopter back.
- Death from Above: Like Nick, she can be called in for air support, though she uses a chopper instead of a plane.
- Expy: Of Moxxi. Both are middle-aged women who look good for their age, talk with breathy, sexual tones, and have Cloud Cuckoo Lander sons.
- Glass Cannon: Even worse than Nick, with less damage potential and next to no survivability against anything heavier than a bunch of assault rifles.
- Hellish Copter: She could qualify as the game's poster girl for this trope since her chopper is even more fragile than Nick's plane, with the added disadvantage of being much slower (often stationary) and therefore so much easier to hit. If there's even one mounted gun anywhere in the area, chances are she won't survive more than a few seconds. She also tends to instantly fall out of the sky in a burning wreck the moment a Peggie aircraft shows up.
- Hypocritical Humor: She will frequently tell the Deputy and others to get their heads out of the gutter. She, by contrast, is perverted enough for twelve.
- I Call It "Vera": Her chopper is named "Tulip".
- More Dakka: One of her perks lets her shoot more bullets than normal. If she's out of her chopper, she uses a large machine gun as well.
- Never Mess with Granny: She may be over 60, but she's got a lot of firepower and likes to use it.
- Put on a Bus: New Dawn reveals that she actually survived the events of 5 but left Hope County with her boytoy Xander for a "sex resort" located in Cuba.
- Silver Fox: Addie's over 60, but she still looks pretty attractive, and she's not above using her looks to score with men. Certainly she's a lot more sexually successful than her son.
- The One Guy: Invoked during her quest to retrieve her chopper. She remarks that the person piloting her chopper will be a man, while every other one is piloted by a woman. This is because the women were part of an aviation club before they joined the cult, so they would have choppers of their own already.
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Inverted, she's over 60 but doesn't look like it, and looks a lot more glamorous than her fat, untidy Manchild son.
- We Used to Be Friends: Adelaide's friendship with her helicopter pilot club mates didn't survive the Project's arrival in Hope County. Now she's so pissed at them she wants the Deputy to put a bullet in each of their heads.
Sharky Boshaw
The Pyrotechnics Phenom
Click to see him in New Dawn.
Voiced by: Dylan Taylor (English)note
"Charlemagne Victor Boshaw here. May as well call me Sharky, though because we're probably gonna be the very best of friends after this. Taking down Peggies with you is going to be a hoot. Oh, yeah. I got skills, too. Mad skills, man. I make my own pyrotechnics. Smoke bombs. Incendiary rounds. Peggies don't stand a chance, okay? And I can take a blast to the face and keep on trucking. You don't want me around when the shit hits the fan, because when the shit hits the fan you fight it with fire. Yep! Sharky's joining the resistance!"
Fights because he has no friends.
Hurk's cousin. A pyromaniac using the cult's invasion to indulge his love of setting things on fire.
- Blood Knight: He enjoys killing Peggies and especially Angels just for the fun of it. In particular he enjoys watching them burn.
- Brick Joke: In Far Cry 5, he asks Jess if she had a crush on the animated fox version of Robin Hood and jokes he'd wear a fursuit for her. New Dawn reveals he's a furry, or became one.
- Cool Uncle: He tries to be one to his baby nephew in New Dawn, even allowing him to play with his pyrotechnics.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Muses on random things during his travels. And his mind goes to some strange places.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Does not like his first name, which is Charlemagne.
- Disco: He loves his disco.
- Friendless Background: His apparent reason to fight is a lack of friends.
- Hidden Depths: When Bean goes around asking everyone (in honest curiosity) in Prosperity what an orgasm is, every other character is embarrassed and refuses to answer, but Sharky gives an accurate but concise and mature answer.
- Implacable Man: One of his special skills is extremely high resistance to knockdown and explosions in general.
- Manchild: Like his cousin, Sharky treats everything around him like one big video game.
- My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: States this at one point, adding that he gives it two stars.
- Playing with Fire: His weapon is a flamethrower. One of his techniques also gives a slight fire boost to his shotgun, if he decides to use that instead.
- Promotion to Parent: In New Dawn, with Hurk busy fighting against the Highwaymen, Sharky is left to take care of Hurk's toddler.
- Pyromaniac: He loves fire, not just the flamethrower but he always loads his shotgun with Dragon's Breath shells which also sets enemies on fire. He is also the only specialist that Jess is a little wary of.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Uses a shotgun with incendiary shells by default.
- Time-Passage Beard: He's grown a long shaggy beard by the time of New Dawn.
- Unfriendly Fire: Just like Hurk, Sharky gleefully torches anything and everything without giving a damn about who else gets caught in the inferno.
Grace Armstrong
The Sharpshooting Hero
Click to see her in New Dawn.
Voiced by: Murry Peeters (English)note
"Name's Grace Armstrong. These Peggies are trying to erase our history. Demoralize us. They want us to give in. I saw the same tactics used over in Afghanistan. I was a sniper for the Army. A lot of people think they can pick up a scoped rifle and and call themselves a sharpshooter. Well, I'm not a lot of people. Got war medals, an Olympic medal, and a laser sight to prove I'm different. These Peggies know about me. All I have to do is hit one of 'em, and the rest'll get scared. They can run all they want, but I'll get 'em. If you're looking to team up with a real soldier, gimme a call. We done here? There's work to do."
Fights to keep Hope alive
A former Olympic medalist and veteran of the War in Afghanistan, Grace is a combat sharpshooter who owned a shooting range in her native Hope County.
- Ace Custom: Carries a modified AR-15 that's been equipped with a collapsible buttstock, long-range scope, M-LOK handguard, Magpul PMags, compensator, and a distinctive green laser sight.
- Badass in Distress: When you go to recruit her, she's defending the church graveyard where her father is buried from an army of peggies she just can't hold off on her own, so she enlists your help and joins you afterwards.
- Blind Weaponmaster: By the events of New Dawn, she has developed cataracts that have rendered her effectively blind. This doesn't slow her down much, though; she's still not too shabby with a shotgun and manages to assemble a buzzsaw-launching crossbow by hand with no outside assistance. When recruited into Prosperity, she is usually found near the weapons workbench, ostensibly as the settlement's weapons quartermaster.
- Boom, Headshot!: The only body part she aims for, and she virtually never misses. On the other hand, she also takes more time to line up her shot than other characters. (Or at least feels like it)
- Career-Ending Injury: She has gone blind as of New Dawn (possibly from witnessing one of the several nukes exploding), meaning that she can no longer fight as a Gun For Hire.
- Demoted to Extra: In New Dawn, due to going blind she's relegated to the role of a Specialist that stays at Prosperity.
- The Dreaded: Grace's reputation is a weapon in itself. When she starts popping off shots, enemy units will panic because they know she's in the area.
- Friendly Sniper: Assuming you're no peggie, she has your back no matter what.
- Honorary Uncle: In between 5 and New Dawn, Grace became close to the Rye's family and was referred by Carmina as "Auntie Grace".
- Ink-Suit Actor: Grace looks vaguely like her voice actress Murry Peeters.
- Laser Sight: Has a special green one to make it easier to distinguish from hostile snipers' red ones.
- No Social Skills: She's not exactly a people person, something she herself lampshades in ambient chatter with the Deputy.
- Odd Friendship: Gets along surprisingly well with Jess despite their differences. Grace shows sympathy for Jess's lonely state and tends to look out for the huntress's well-being, even welcoming her into her family once the fighting is over. It is telling when Jess doesn't immediately dismiss that offer.
- Scary Black Woman: Whenever she shifts to Cold Sniper mode.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: An Afghanistan vet, Grace doesn't like it when it's quiet because that gives her too much time to think and dwell on memories she'd like to forget. It doesn't make her any less of a fighter, though.
- Veteran Instructor: In New Dawn as her eyesight got worse from the nuclear blast, she retires to the backline in Prosperity.
Fighters
Several locals can be hired by the Deputy to fight alongside. There is usually one or two hanging around a liberated outpost, and you can usually find some wandering around the hillsnote . Some offer sidequests. The Deputy may hire up to 3 at a time. They'll randomly have two skills, one that unlocks after they get 5 kills and the other after 12. They also have a randomly generated class, which dictates their weapon: soldier (1911 pistol or AR-C assault rifle), Sniper (AR-CL rifle), Archer (compound bow), Demolition (RPG-7 rocket launcher), or Melee (baseball bat or M133 shotgun).
- Action Girl: Some are male, some are female. But all of them will fight.
- Arrows on Fire: Like Jess, if they use a bow they'll use Incendiary Arrows against vehicles and tough foes.
- Badass Driver: Should you let one of them take the wheel, they'll prove to be alright drivers.
- Badass Normal: While the Whitetails and Cougars are fairly well armed, those from Fall's End aren't as well equipped, they only have a gun (or a bat) and not much else.
- Band of Brothers: Unlike the sniping the specialists have with each other, they get along well with everyone.
- Batter Up!: They may be a melee chracter with nothing more than a baseball bat as a weapon.
- Canine Companion: They may randomly have a hunting dog with them. You can't recruit their dogs though.
- Combat Medic: Potential skills include automatically reviving the Deputy or themselves or increased recovery rate from injury.
- Evil Feels Good: Some of them when prompted in Faith's region will remark that the first hit of Bliss always feels really good. But then you feel yourself getting emptier afterwards.
- Friendly Sniper: They'll still have the same friendly, easy-going personality if their weapon of choice is a sniper rifle.
- The Generic Guy: Their only characterization is "pissed-off Hope County resident that wants to get rid off the peggies". They're randomly generated both in looks and name, and are completely interchangeable apart from their (also randomly assigned) weapon specialization and unlockable skills. There's only a couple of different voices between them, too.
- Jack of All Stats: They're pretty solid all-around performers both in open combat and sneak attacks, but lack the unique skills of the nine specialists. They also need to gain kills before the skills are unlocked.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: These are normal people from Montana, not officers or soldiers. But they will fight like hell to defend their home.
- Magical Defibrillator: Some of them come with a skill called Field Surgeon which revives you completely full of health if you die in a fight. Very invaluable.
- More Dakka: Indirectly. One of their possible skills increases the Deputy's maximum ammo capacity for as long as they're in the active party.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Their dialogue is tied to the region the player is currently in: Talking to one in the Whitetail Mountains will make them speak as though they are part of the Whitetails, even if they were recruited in Holland Valley or the Henbane River.
- Nice Guy: Have nothing but kindness and compliments for the Deputy, and among themselves.
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: The Whitetail militia are a very rare heroic incarnation. Between battles with the Peggies, they tend to wax contemptuous for the federal government, city folks, and liberals, while praising the freedom and beauty of life in Montana.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: One of their possible weapon choices. For obvious reasons, they tend to do better at close range.
- Stuff Blowing Up: One of their possible weapon choices is an RPG. These kinds of fighters are rare.
- Wrench Wench: One of their possible skills is to repair vehicles while the Deputy drives.
- The Scrounger: Similar to Boomer, some fighters will independently loot dead enemies for resources and ammo which get added to the Deputy's stockpiles automatically. Unlike Boomer, they need to unlock this skill first.
Fangs for Hire
Boomer
The Good Boy
Fights for you
An Australian cattle dog whose owners were killed by the Project. He immediately (as dogs often do) befriends the Junior Deputy, and will steal weapons from Project members. "Ruff! Ruff!"
- Action Pet: Although the Deputy wasn't his initial owner, he stands up to it.
- Army Scout: Aside from being a dog, Boomer hits all points: Moves quickly and quietly, marks everything, uses few weapons, and is more fragile than others.
- Awesome Aussie: Well, Australian cattle dog, anyway. And a lot friendlier than the last Australian to appear in a Far Cry game.
- Beware the Nice Ones: A friendly little guy who's happy to fight by your side and is really docile by default. However as the Peggies learn, kiling his previous owners were the last straw.
- Boring, but Practical: Boomer doesn't do anything particularly dramatic and won't contribute much to a firefight unless a stealth approach is taken (in which case, Peaches is more effective anyway). But in a game that already rewards stealth, having every nearby enemy marked for you while ignoring the normal line-of-sight rules is priceless. The very same skill is also an invaluable help while hunting game for cash or perk points since it also marks the oftentimes hard-to-spot animals in a considerable radius.
- Bus Crash: Boomer is long dead by the time of New Dawn, which takes place 17 years after 5 (well beyond the natural lifespan of a dog, assuming he died a natural death). You can even find his grave stone in-game. That said, he returns in Far Cry 6, which is set in 2021 and ignores 5's "Resist" ending and New Dawn, effectively rendering them an Alternate Continuity.
- Canine Companion: If the player wishes, Boomer can easily be this.
- Fun with Subtitles: Him being, well, a dog, his specialist trailer shows him in action while his barks are subtitled as he talks about himself.Boomer: "I'm a very good boy who works very very hard! Bad people killed my family. So I will take down the bad people. I jump on the bad ones, I bite the bad ones! It's easy and fun! I will find the bad ones for you. I will bring their loud sticks to you! Please pet me sometimes. We're family now!"
- Happily Adopted: By the Junior Deputy after rescuing him.
- Heroic Dog: Boomer will gladly help the Junior Deputy in fighting the peggies.
- Pet the Dog: You literally pet him to recruit him after the peggies killed his owners, and you can continue to do so at any time afterwards for no particular reason other than the warm fuzzy feeling of being nice to your faithful companion.
- Shout-Out: An Australian cattle dog in a New Old West story, who helps a policeman that serves as the protagonist to protect a secluded town that's under siege? This seems familiar...
- The Scrounger: He'll occasionally bring the Deputy crafting resources and ammo he found somewhere in the vicinity (they're actually spawned out of nowhere just for him to give to you).
- Sticky Fingers: He will steal weapons from cultists.
- You Killed My Father: His owners (parents to him) were murdered by the cult, and he wants to fight them back.
Cheeseburger
The Fearsome Grizzly
- Artistic License – Animal Care: In real life, taming bears is difficult, and the level of complex training and pack-animal behavior seen with Cheeseburger is unheard of. That said, the game does note that you shouldn't feed a bear cheeseburgers in real life, as Cheeseburger's diabetes proves.
- Bears Are Bad News: He is this to any cultist that the Junior Deputy chooses to sic him on. His only real drawback is when you're hunting, he'll scare off your prey which helps if you're not hunting, but can mess things up for you if you are.
- Beary Friendly: Cheeseburger allows you to pet him. Note: do not attempt this with wild bears in real life.
- Escaped Animal Rampage: While the Cult was taking over the F.A.N.G Center, Cheeseburger's caretaker let him out rather than doom him to being turned into a Judge. Needless to say, when you first encounter him you can see that he has been making a meal out of the cult.
- Evil Poacher: His mother was shot by poachers, making him an orphan.
- Fluffy the Terrible: A grizzly bear that'll One-Hit Kill almost anyone who threatens its master is probably not the first thing that springs to your mind when you hear of some critter named "Cheeseburger".
- Gentle Giant: A big-ass tamed bear who is really loyal and affectionate.
- Handicapped Badass: On the one hand, he's diabetic. On the other hand, he's a bear, and exactly as formidable towards the Peggies as any of your human allies.
- Meaningful Name: He got his name because he was found eating leftover burgers from a place called "The Grill Streak". Cheeseburgers were his favourite, but he unknowingly gave himself diabetes which now prevents him from eating any more cheeseburgers.
- Leeroy Jenkins: He's built around the concept of charging into the fray and drawing as much attention as possible while he's at it. Unfortunately, while he is the most durable specialist character, any heavier opposition than three peggies with assault rifles will knock him out in seconds. He's still just an unarmored bear, after all.
- Trademark Favorite Food: He got his name because he loved eating cheeseburgers as a cub. Unfortunately, this led to him developing diabetes and he now primarily eats salmon.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Is absent from New Dawn, although bears can live up to 30 years in the wild.
Peaches
The Feline Powerhouse
- Cool Cat: A powerful, stealthy predator who lets you pet her.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Just like Cheeseburger, Peaches' lethality stands in no relation to her cuddly name.
- Glass Cannon: Peaches can take down just about any human opponent she sneaks up on, but she's not very durable and tends to get taken out quickly if she's spotted.
- Panthera Awesome: She's a fairly big mountain cat.
- Stealth Expert: Of the Fangs for Hire, Peaches is utilized for quiet work. Even when spotted, Peggies often mistake her for a wild animal and do not sound the alarm. She is also completely undetectable in tall grass, and her takedowns are always silent, even if in open combat.
- To Serve Man: After a fight, Peaches will often stop to take a few bites out of any dead Peggies in the area. Many NPCs will comment with apprehension that she's got a taste for human flesh.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Miss Mable has special treats for her. The Deputy uses them to lure Peaches back to her pen.
Project at Eden’s Gate
In General
- Abusive Parents: Heavily implied, if not outright confirmed, through John's dialogue when he captures the Junior Deputy. He claims it was through them that he learned through the power of "yes". They were no better to Faith but since she's adopted, they weren't the same parents.
- It should be mentioned that John was talking about his adoptive parents. Apparently, if The Book of Joseph is to be believed, and is reinforced by snippets of dialogue and messages, the Seed brothers were separated after their biological mother and father were arrested, one for neglect the other for child abuse. John received the best out of the three, though he also got the hardest. The adoptive parents believed that silence meant guilt, so they beat him until he snapped and began to say yes a lot. They accepted this and sent him through law school and he gained a sizable inheritance, which allowed him to buy all the land the cult owns in Hope County. Jacob was sent to juvie for burning down a barn and killing his adoptive parents, who were no better than his biological ones, as they had the three brothers work all day in the barn with enough water and food just to survive. Joseph, who had heard "the Voice" was cycled through foster families each time it was revealed that he believed what he heard. When all three were grown up, it was Joseph who convinced his brothers that their hardships were tests of their resolve and were to strengthen their bond. Honestly, none of the Seeds had an easy life.
- In turn, Joseph reveals that he suffocated his own baby in the hospital after his pregnant wife died in a car crash.
- Alas, Poor Villain: The deaths of each of Joseph's siblings are painted in this light, as Joseph will eulogize each of them, highlighting traits meant to make them appear more sympathetic to the player.
- Amazon Brigade: Cult VIP's in the Henbane River region are usually women with bright ruby red hair called Priestesses. They are exclusively female.
- Apocalypse Cult: Joseph believes the end of the world is nigh, and he's made it his purpose to train people to survive it, whether or not they're willing. This means a lot of kidnapping, brainwashing, and hoarding weapons. Disturbingly, the game ends with the revelation that he was all too right about that impending apocalypse, leading into the next game in the franchise New Dawn.
- Ax-Crazy: Yes. John and Jacob tend to be a bit more expressive in the "Ax" department, but all four of them are violent and crazy.
- Beard of Evil: All over the place. Joseph, John and Jacob Seed are all rocking beards, and beards are also extremely common among their thugs.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Between the four of them, the Seeds cover most of the tropes of the American cult landscape. Joseph is an apocalyptic Dark Messiah in the vein of David Koresh and Jim Jones. John takes inspiration from televangelists and quasi-religious self-help gurus such as Joel Osteen. Jacob is in the religious militia movement similar to the Montana Freemen
. And Faith represents a dark version of the drug-fueled hippie movements like the Manson family. - Blonde Brunette Red Head: Respectively, Faith is the blonde, John and Joseph are the brunettes, and Jacob is the redhead.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: A good portion of the cult's soldiers is this, due to Joseph's siblings all utilizing some form of Mind Control to mentally subvert them. Faith uses a drug called Bliss to create frenzied druggies she calls "Angels", John prefers to torture people into submission while Jacob uses Mind-Control Music to activate Manchurian Agents. In the prequel, John pours a neon blue liquid that may or may not be Bliss into the river used to baptize new converts to the cult, and Faith adds the same liquid into the tea she serves Sara.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Despite being able to capture the player with incredible ease, the Seeds usually prefer to just take the time to monologue at you rather than killing you on the spot.
- Character Filibuster: All four of the Seeds are in love with the sound of their own voices. Every single cutscene involves them giving several minute long monologues about their personal beliefs (John talking about saying "yes", Jacob ranting about how the weak must be killed by the strong, etc). This includes their death scenes, where they still manage to give one last filibuster before expiring. To make matters worse, many of these cutscenes aren't skippable.
- Deceptive Disciple: Subtly implied, and subverted as they never explicitly turn on Joseph, but pretty much all of his Heralds subvert Joseph's ideas.
- John is heavily implied to be using the Cult as an opportunity to fulfill his sadistic impulses, as shown when he nearly drowns the Deputy instead of baptizing them, causing Joseph to admonish him.
- Jacob explicitly states that he doesn't believe Joseph can hear the voice of God in his death speech, the implication being that he is simply using the Cult as an excuse to put his Darwinian beliefs into action, possibly as a coping method for eating Miller. He also doesn't want to inculcate the Deputy into the Cult, wanting instead to end them as a threat as quickly as possible albeit after getting as much use out of them by having them kill Eli and find the Whitetail’s bunker for him-in stark contrast to how Joseph wishes to have the Deputy converted to their cause.
- Faith, ironically fulfills Joseph’s orders the most, but she seems to be in it less out of belief in Joseph, and more for a sense of belonging and avoiding being hurt by the Cult for her failures. During her boss fight, either out of genuine anguish or to manipulate the Deputy, she states how the cult "plied her with drugs...when [she] was only a child" and pointedly, states "Joseph believes he's our savior". That being said, she is the most vocal about warning the Deputy of Joseph being right in her final words.
- Elite Mook: Each Herald will spawn heavy, but mundane, troops when the Resistance level gets too high. Jacob will spawn flotilla helicopters, John will spawn several armed truck convoys, and Faith will spawn a squad of gunboats.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Downplayed, the cult recruits people of all races, and men and women serve in equal capacity, but the white Seeds are the ones in charge.
- Evil Luddite: Downplayed, but Faith's former friends and family bemoans why they have to write letters to her. Played straight in New Dawn, as New Eden the group has completely eschewed "old world technology" and adopted a primitivist lifestyle where they use bows as weapons.
- Family Eye Resemblance: All Seed brothers have vividly blue eyes.
- The Family That Slays Together: They're blood siblings (with the exception of Faith) who run an evil cult.
- Faux Affably Evil: Every sibling is soft-spoken and polite, even though they are crazed murderers.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- Sanguine: Faith - Charming, cheerful, and secretly crazy.
- Choleric: John - Domineering, callous, and legally savvy
- Melancholic: Jacob - The Stoic, skeptical, and analytical.
- Phlegmatic: Joseph - Calm, charismatic, and emotional.
- Hidden Depths: In the mission "Confession", you can occasionally hear idle chatter from the cult members criticizing the way they treat their prisoners. Namely, the physical abuse and lack of proper facilities (including beds). Joseph Seed also chastises John in "The Cleansing" for drowning the Deputy For the Evulz instead of baptizing him properly.
- Hillbilly Horrors: The game takes place in rural Montana, after all.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Each member of the Seed family represents one of the original 4: Joseph is Conquest, taking over Hope County. John is Famine, in charge of confiscating food and land for the cult. Jacob is War, training an army and brainwashing people into killing machines. Faith is Death/Pestilence, turning people into what are essentially zombies. Among the random Loading Screen quotes are verses from Revelations about each Horseman.
- Hypocrite: All of them continue to try to tell the Deputy to stand down, even when they continually make the situation worse and worse by sending the cultists to kill them. It would also be incredibly easy to try to point out the flaws in their philosophies, but since the Deputy is a Mute Protagonist, this is impossible.
- Meaningful Name: Each member of the Seed family, alongside the cult itself, has a name and title that stems from the Bible indicative of the role they have to play:
- Joseph was the name of the father (or foster-father rather) of Jesus, whereas Joseph Seed is the founder and leader of the Project at Eden's Gate. In other words, he's the project's "father."
- John, also referred to as the Baptist, obviously takes his name from John the Baptist since he's the one responsible for recruiting, or baptizing, new members into Eden's Gate.
- Jacob is named after the biblical Jacob, who fought his twin brother Esau in the womb, and gained the name Israel after wrestling an angel sent by God. It may also be meaningful that the biblical Jacob lived in constant conflict with his brother Esau, whereas the game's Jacob is somewhat at odds with his brothers for not sharing their religious beliefs.
- While Faith is strongly implied to be a Legacy Character, both the name Faith and her title of the Siren reference her role in ensnaring the loyalty of others by getting them addicted to/brainwashed by the Bliss. However her real name, Rachel Jessop still holds it's own meaning, as the biblical Rachel was known for her beauty (similar to Faith's angel-like beauty), while her last name Jessop is derived from Yosef, meaning "may God increase, or add (another son)," again referencing the Bliss and how it "adds" new members to the cult.
- The family name of Seed is a reference to how it is from them that Eden's Gate was started, and from the Project as a whole that humanity will grow and survive after the Collaspe.
- And lastly, Project at Eden's Gate obviously comes from the Garden of Eden, the paradise mankind was expelled from after commiting the first sin, and what the cult wishes to recreate for it's followers.
- The cult's name may also refer to the infamous Heaven's Gate cult, though they committed suicide en masse in order to leave their physical bodies, rather than act as a prepping doomsday cult.
- Moral Myopia: They call the resistance and protagonist in general murderers for killing their members yet they have no problem in killing innocent people as well as brainwashing them into joining their ranks.
- New Media Is Evil: The cult hates social media and the internet, and cuts all signals coming into the county to stop anyone from accessing it or help. One of Joseph's sermons even has him loudly denounce social media.
- N.G.O. Superpower: Sort of, the cult has access to technicals, World War 2 planes, and helicopters.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: They are heavily based on Branch Davidians but with far more firepower and manpower.
- Psycho Serum:
- Bliss at high concentrations turns people into "Angels", mindless zombies that are also highly durable.
- In New Dawn, Joseph possesses special apples (likely augmented by a combination of Bliss and radiation) that bestow superhuman abilities to those who eat them at the risk of possibly being transformed into monsters, effectively becoming even more powerful versions of Angels. In the case of the Captain, after conquering their inner demons they're able to gain said powers while still keeping their humanity intact.
- Retired Monster: In New Dawn, as New Eden, they've stopped harassing outsiders and focused on their own survival. They even opt to help out against the Highwaymen in individual skirmishes, and in organized force after the Captain brings back Joseph Seed. While the idea of teaming up with them against the Highwaymen is an uneasy one for the old guard like Kim Rye, New Eden never renegs on their alliance, save for one traitor...
- Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: Certainly have traits of this trope, considering their rural background inspiration from the Branch Davidians and fanatical anti-government stance. Ironically, a few Hope County locals identify them as "hippies", possibly because of their leader's shirtless tendencies, profusion of long hair and their use of psychedelic drugs. They also have some extremist Communist flavors as well, since The Reaping bears an eerie resemblance to the Holodomor.
- That said, they are vehemently opposed by the far more traditional incarnation of this trope in the form of the Whitetail Milita, who are unabashedly portrayed as heroic.
- Sigil Spam: They use their crosses everywhere, from banners to flags to poles used to impale their victims. Somehow some of it even gets into Dutch's bunker in the ending.
- Straight Edge Evil: Hurk considered joining Eden's Gate during his mission but changes his mind because the cult forbids alcohol and sex. They do employ the use of Bliss, but that's more for breaking down the resistance of recruits than it is for recreation.
- Suicidal Overconfidence: The cult believes in Easy Evangelism to the degree that some members seem to genuinely think that preaching at people shooting at them will work. Joseph states in one of his sermons that “Some of you may fight, but our love will quell your bullets…” In “Keep Your Rifle By Your Side,” the singers sing about how “They’ve got bombs and tanks…But we won’t fall as long as we can fight.”
- Tattooed Crook: Each member has tattoos on them, however, Jacob doesn't seem to have any visible tattoos due the rashes and burns.
- Took a Level in Kindness: By the time of New Dawn, they're considerably more friendly towards outsiders, or "sinners", as they call them, than they were in the previous game.
Makes sense when you consider that most of the more murderously radical Peggies were killed prior to the Collapse, so most of them are new, more open-minded converts. - Uncertain Doom: Boomer's arrival in Far Cry 6 as "Boom-Boom" shows that the nuclear apocalypse never happened and the game shows that it's been 3 years since Far Cry 5. This shows that the Resist ending is not the real ending. With the Deputy either arresting Joseph after the deaths of his brothers and sister without any nuclear bombs going off, or the entire Seed family was arrested when The Deputy left the compound to summon the national guard in the secret ending.
- Villain Ball: They never outright kill The Deputy despite their ease of capturing them, often giving a monologue or a theatrical moment rather than just shooting them in the head.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: From a certain point of view. They believe they are saving people, yet their tactics include torture and mass murder.
- Western Terrorists: An American religious group that conducts domestic terrorism and uses terror tactics such as the destruction of holy symbols and landmarks, along with rewriting and erasing history. Grace remarks that the cult's methods are similar to those used by foreign terrorists in Afghanistan.
- The Worf Effect: in New Dawn, after Ethan Seed rats out New Eden to the Highwaymen, New Eden is on fire and under heavy siege from the Highwaymen, as Mickey and Lou march after Joseph's blessed apples for more power. It's very much implied that if the Highwaymen and Ethan aren't stopped at New Eden then and now, Propserity will easily share the same fate.
- Though this may be a case of Worf Had the Flu as this is canonically after the Sheriff, backed by the Whitetails and others, destroyed most of the pre-apocalypse leadership and infrastructure that Eden's Gate spent years building during their take over of Hope County. Then the world ended before Joseph could rebuild, meaning any leadership he built was remnants mixed in with a few converts.
Leader
Joseph Seed
The Father
"I told you God wouldn't let you take me..."
Click to see him in New Dawn.
Portrayed by: Greg Bryk (Inside Eden's Gate)
Voiced by: Greg Bryk (English)note
Something is coming. You can feel it, can’t you? You can feel that we are creeping towards the edge... And there will be a reckoning.
A radical preacher and leader of the Project at Eden's Gate.
- Affably Evil: By the time of New Dawn, Joseph's charisma and politeness is considerably more genuine, since he's had time to mellow out after the bombing of Hope County, but he still comes across as pretty creepy when he's speaking to the Captain. He's certainly more genuinely friendly than his son.
- Agitated Item Stomping: In the prequel, when Alex reveals that he uploaded the footage he took of Eden's Gate to the internet, Joseph takes the smartphone he was using to do so and angrily crushes it underfoot.
- Ambiguous Situation: While there's implications that what has confirmed to be a global nuclear war was orchestrated by Joseph; with each of his siblings have giant bunkers in their region, complete with nuclear silos. It's also likely that global tensions that you can momentarily hear over the radio during the game are just as likely. Either way Faith even warns the player, that if you resist Joseph, he will be right. However, the Far Cry 6 "Control" DLC implies that, because Pagan Min had a stockpile of nukes aimed directly at Hope County, it could have been Ajay, Sabal, Amita or some other person in Kyrat as the one responsible for nuking the region.
- Apologetic Attacker: Downplayed. In Collapse, Joseph has a small Heel Realization that causes him to consider all of his followers to be Beyond Redemption, and feels that death is the only way to save them.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In the normal "Resist" ending, he rubs on the player's face that he was right all along about the world collapsing and declares his intent to bring spread his message to the world when the radiation settles down. It's also implied that he succeeds in turning the Deputy into his sleeper agent in the "Walk Away" ending, and law enforcement willingly leaves him and his cult alone in the secret ending. Even in his worst scenario, he has at least a Pyrrhic Victory.
- Beard of Sorrow: By the time of New Dawn, his beard has grown a lot longer, and he's had to live with the fact that he's outlived his siblings and most of his acolytes, and Hope County wasn't as peaceful post-Collapse as he expected it would be. And then he has to watch his son die right in front of him.
- Big Bad: Is this in Far Cry 5 and its prequel, Inside Eden's Gate. He loses this position to the Twins and Ethan in New Dawn, even if he’s still as evil as ever.
- Big Brother Bully: It is suggested that he might be this to Faith, as Faith expresses dread at his reaction when the player destroys the Our Founder statue of him in her territory and burns the book of his teachings that she was safekeeping. Tracey also flat-out states that Faith would have to answer to Joseph for both those things. Later on, during Faith's boss battle, she sprouts lines that suggest that Joseph has abused her in the past or will punish her for failing him. The fact that Faith is only the latest in a line of women who previously held her name and position in the cult also lends credence to this view.
- Cold Ham: Despite his profound speeches, he rarely raises his voice above a gentle whisper. Unless he is preaching, in which case he's more traditional Large Ham.
- Color Motif: Yellow/gold, mostly exemplified by his glasses. He's introduced bathed in yellow light streaming from behind him from the Eden's Gate cross-shaped window.
- Control Freak: His primary flaw is his insistance that his word is law.
- Joseph believes he should be the one to shepherd the flock and protect everyone from the apocalypse. But, everyone outside of his cult believes he's insane and he actually causes the death of his family when he inevitably gets the attention of the cops. His faith in God is shown in Collapse to be way to reclaim control of his life and not lose anyone else to events beyond his control.
- Joseph's family broke apart because his brothers and wife; a young and naive John reported their father to their teacher and Joseph was against that because it meant they'd split up and unable to protect each other. Jacob murdered their abusive father to finally end their abuse but Joseph was against it because it meant they'd be split up. His wife, Faith, was killed in a car accident and in his grief, he killed the baby so she'd be in a better place.
- Cruel Mercy:
- Inflicts this on the Deputy in the "Resist" ending. He saves their life and imprisons them in the bunker, stating that he could have killed them for the deaths of his siblings, but instead decides to brainwash them.
- In New Dawn, it's possible at the end for the player to do this to him, refusing to kill him so that he'll be forced to live with the realization and guilt from all of the torment and suffering he's caused. It's not just being forced to live with the realization of everything he's done, but in sparing him the player turns Joseph's faith back on him: In refusing to murder him, the player has left Joseph no out that isn't going to damn his soul in the eyes of God. For a man of faith and prophet, that is a fate crueler than any other. This mirrors what he did to the Deputy in the "Resist" ending, and it may be implied that doing this has the Captain leaving his fate to the mercy of the Judge.
- Dark Messiah: Presents himself as a prophet, although he declares that unlike Jesus, God will never allow the Junior Deputy to kill him. He's right about them not being able to stop him, though perhaps his messiah complex is a bit too far. Joseph's son Ethan is openly skeptical of his father's supposed messiah-dom, and eventually Joseph agrees with him.
- Death Seeker: He ends up becoming this after New Eden is destroyed in New Dawn and Ethan dies at the Captain's hands. Feeling that he is a monster and deserves death, he begs the Captain to "release (him)". Whether or not the Captain grants his request is up to the player.
- Deep South: During the ending and when all three of his siblings have been killed his natural accent can be heard slipping out. Justified since he is originally from the state of Georgia. During a flashback in Far Cry 6's "Insanity" DLC, Joseph can be seen on TV preaching with his natural Georgian accent.
- Dissonant Serenity: Far from any of the contingencies he set in place for doomsday and surrounded by people who would have no problem shooting him, Joseph opts to take the apocalypse on the chin and go out singing "Amazing Grace" as the bombs start falling in the "Resist" ending.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He cares quite dearly for his siblings, and whenever one of them is felled by the Junior Deputy, he is seen to mourn them, along with swearing retribution on the Resistance.
- He also cares deeply for his bastard son Ethan in New Dawn, but Ethan resents his father for refusing to name him the heir to his kingdom. And in spite of Ethan betraying New Eden to the Highwaymen and taking and eating the fruit of the Tree of Eden in defiance of his father's wishes, Joseph still mourns his son after he dies.
- The Extremist Was Right: Every atrocity he had his cult commit in Hope County was done in the hopes of building a society that could both survive the coming apocalypse and rebuild civilization afterwards. In the "Resist" ending, the prophesied end of civilization comes true as Hope County is destroyed in a nuclear attack.
- Evil Former Friend: He and Jerome were once close friends who bonded over shared faith, but he later stole Jerome's congregation and had him beaten to near death.
- Eye Scream: At the beginning of 5, before you even meet him in person, the phone video about the Project that the Deputy is watching shows Joseph catching the infiltrator who was filming one of his services, who he promptly has hauled away from the congregation so he can gouge his eyes out, right after delivering this frightening one-liner:"They are blind... but I will make them see."
- Faux Affably Evil: In the Far Cry tradition, he acts polite towards everyone, but has no problem with killing or brainwashing anyone who gets in his way.
- Heel Realization: In Far Cry: New Dawn, it seems he's had plenty of time to mellow out following the end of the world. It's only at the very end of the game that Joseph realizes that everything he's done from the very beginning was just spreading death and destruction in God's name, prompting him to cross the Despair Event Horizon and give up his ambitions entirely.
- Hero Killer: He wrote this letter to a person named Sara, encouraging her to "walk the path". Considering the fact that doing so entails scaling his statue and then jumping off the top, he certainly fits this trope if the letter's addressee both went through with it and is the same Sara that is a protagonist from the prequel.
- Hijacked by Ganon: He doesn't do anything actively evil in New Dawn, but after defeating the Highwaymen and putting Ethan down, he's the final villain you have to face, and he openly asks the Captain to kill him.
- I Am a Monster: He says this word for word in New Dawn after having a Heel Realization and watching his son Ethan die in his arms.
- Inelegant Blubbering: After the final Seed sibling is killed, tears are not only streaming down his face, but snot is coming out of his nose."Another seal has been opened. My family... my brothers, my sister, THEY'VE BEEN TAKEN FROM ME!!!"
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: I Won't Self Terminate, rather, should the player spare him in New Dawn. This is due to his hardline religious beliefs making it so that he'd go straight to Hell if he did.
- I Surrender, Suckers:
- At the start of the game, he willingly allows the Junior Deputy to handcuff him and take him away, knowing that his followers will stage a Villainous Rescue to save him.
- In the prequel, when confronting Hannah and Mark, he drops his gun on the ground and feigns surrender, distracting them long enough for John to sneak up on them and recapture them.
- Informed Ability: Apparently, Joseph once ate a fruit from the Tree of Eden, forcing him to confront the raging beast that embodied his own soul, and he had to overcome that beast in order to gain the power the fruit granted. That said, we never see Joseph fight, so it's unclear what power the fruit gave him.
- Ink-Suit Actor: He bears quite a resemblance to his voice actor, Greg Bryk, who also portrays the character in the game's live-action tie-in media such as the prequel.
- Invincible Villain: No matter what happens in the game, he always survives and escapes justice, not taking the post game implications into account. Even if you shoot him dead while he's in your car in the Nuke Ending, a nuke immediately detonates right on top of (or close enough to) you, killing you instantly. The game doesn't let you kill him or capture him no matter what, even if it defies logic. He even lampshades this by saying "God will not let you take me." The only endings that have even the most remote retribution are rendered non-canon by New Dawn. In that game, he can ultimately die... but by that point it's what he wanted anyway.
- It's All My Fault: In contrast to his behaviour throughout 5, at the end of New Dawn he blames himself for what happened to Ethan, saying that Ethan's only fault was that he was his son.
- Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. He is the only Far Cry antagonist to survive the events of the game and never answer for his crimes, no matter what the player does: the two standard endings, he either survives inside a bunker alongside the player character in the "Resist" ending, or you can decide to leave him alone and take your allies with you in the "Walk Away" ending (and its implied that he may have brainwashed the player character too). However, in two of the endings, all of his siblings are dead along with his followers and all his other schemes are blown sky high, and in the Resist ending, he's stuck with the one person he hates the most. The Secret Ending plays this straight as it has you leaving him alone to continue his criminal activity unchallenged although this is subverted in a vision from the Collapse DLC.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: At the end of New Dawn, after New Eden is razed to the ground and his son has to be put down he finally realizes that everything he's done has caused pain and suffering and asks the player character to kill him. He'll either be executed by the player's hand or be "spared" so that he'll be forced to live with the guilt.
- In Far Cry 6 it’s shown in a vision of what happens after the secret ending if he and his family succeeded in hiding at their bunker. It’s shown that his siblings flaws and instabilities are worsened, as he is shown to constantly try and keep them under control, which leads to Jacob revolting and shooting him in the chest, killing him.
- The Leader: Of the Project at Eden's Gate and its successor, New Eden.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When he's finally confronted in person, Joseph proceeds to pin the blame for everything that happened in the game on the Deputy. What comes off as a massive case of Never My Fault In-Universe, it is actually accurate as far as the player is concerned: if they'd just accepted his offer in the intro cinematic, none of the end-game horrors would've happened (although it's more than likely the cult would've committed all their atrocities anyway, only without anyone to oppose them). He even punctuates every single 'sin' by saying "And it is all your fault."
- Made of Iron: Survives, with barely a scratch on him, both a helicopter crash and a car crash that kills or injures everyone else in the vehicles he's in.
- Madness Mantra: In the ending of New Dawn, should a player refuse to kill him after the final boss fight, Joseph falls to his knees and screams "Release me!" to the heavens beneath a burning tree. He'll keep doing this even as the player walks away.
- Manly Tears: When the last of his siblings is killed, Joseph is openly sobbing.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- The Collapse DLC shows that Joseph has had history with Hearing Voices, which he attributes to God talking to him. While this could just be the result of some kind of mental issue, the fact that the voices actually manage to predict the future raises some questions. Are they just delusions, is God really talking to him, or do the voices belong to the Devil, pretending to be God to cause even more suffering through Joseph's followers?
- If Joseph really was chosen by God for some purpose, his Karma Houdini status in 5 would make a lot more sense; he'd literally have been under God's protection.
- Meaningful Name: As a priest put it, Joseph Seed could mean the seed of Joseph, Jesus's earthly father.
- More than Mind Control: In the prequel, after Faith picks up on the fact that Sara Hates Being Alone, he then shows sympathy to her by offering her companionship where her friends would leave her behind. By the time he's done, he managed to get Sara to the point where she willingly drinks the drug infused tea offered by Faith, preferring to consume the narcotic as a form of escapism from her situation, and accepting Joseph's invitation to join the cult over continuing to stick with her friends.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- In New Dawn, Ethan's death lets him realize how much suffering he's caused.
- In Collapse, most of the enemies Joseph faces are his own cult members; Joseph aknowledges that he's the one responsible for turning them into monsters Beyond Redemption, and that killing them is the only way to save them.
- Narcissist: Joseph clearly qualifies as this. He calls himself the Father, controls his siblings abusively, and reinterprets the Bible to be all about him. And he's so obsessed with proving that he's the only messiah that he ends up ruining things by kidnapping the residents of Hope County, driving them to riot against him and destroy most of his bunkers right before their home gets nuked.
- Never My Fault: He blames everything that happens over the course of the game on the Rookie, claiming that all the kidnappings, violence, and deaths are their fault for resisting him rather than, you know, his fault for actually committing all of it. It takes the Collapse and, 17 years later, the death of his son for him to finally realize he is a monster.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Bears more than a slight resemblance to David Koresh.
- No Man Should Have This Power: After seeing how it twisted his son Ethan's soul into a demonic monster, he decides to burn down the Tree of Eden, leaving the Captain as the only one worthy of eating its fruit.
- Offing the Offspring: After surviving the car crash that killed his wife, Joseph's infant daughter was hooked up onto breathing tubes, and he suffocated her; supposedly because God told him to do it and caring for her would get in his way, although it's heavily implied his real reason was because he thought she wasn't going to lead a good life due to his being her father.
- Older and Wiser: He's a lot more level-headed and cautious by the time of New Dawn, more interested in protecting his people than kidnapping or enslaving anyone. He also gives the Captain cautionary advice before letting them taste the sacred apple, because he knows that if they're not prepared, the apple's power will destroy them.
- Outliving One's Offspring: He outlives Ethan by just a bit in New Dawn if the Captain kills him soon after. Played straight if the Captain spares him, leaving him pleading for death.
- Parents as People: He tried to be a protective father to his son Ethan and take better care of him than his infant daughter who he smothered at birth, but Ethan's resentment of his father's dogmatism and refusal to trust him with the power of the sacred fruit drove him to betray his people out of spite. In spite of this, Joseph still cares for his son, and is reduced to tears when Ethan dies after battling the Captain as a monster.
- Pietà Plagiarism: After the Captain kills his son, Joseph carries Ethan's body away back to the tree of Eden to mourn him.
- Prim and Proper Bun: A male version. His voice actor Greg Bryk openly describes Joseph's hairstyle as a "man-bun".
- Promoted to Playable: Joseph has a DLC dedicated to him in Far Cry 6 titled "Collapse".
- Properly Paranoid: He refused to give one of the mystic apples to his son Ethan, not even when he was a man, because he feared Ethan's soul was too dark for him to safely handle that power. And since Ethan turns into a monster after one bite of the apple, Joseph had every reason to be worried for his son.
- Pyrrhic Victory: In the "Resist" ending, Joseph Seed ultimately fulfills the prophecy, lives while the rest of Hope County dies, and has gone from a mad lunatic to a true prophet and guide - but you've destroyed everything he ever had, especially his family. He can't save anyone EXCEPT you, the one person he hates more than anyone. New Dawn takes this trope even further. He has a line in said sequel's trailer that clearly shows him regretting the results of his actions.
- Revenge Myopia: Before the final confrontation, he's in open tears after the Deputy has killed every one of his siblings, coldly vowing that he will kill all the Deputy's friends and loved ones in revenge. The way he's responding to his lieutenants' deaths, you'd swear they were innocent loving religious people and not murderous, brainwashing cultists.
- Seven Deadly Sins: He has all seven carved onto his body. Also, in his compound, each of the bunkhouses have one of the Sins - in Latin - painted on them.note
- Sexy Priest: Not that anyone comments on it, but Joseph has a body like an Olympic swimmer, and is frequently shirtless to show it off.
- Sinister Minister: He is technically a man of the cloth.
- Sinister Shades: His wears his gold sunglasses at all times, which adds to his resemblance to David Koresh. He loses them after his boss fight and thus doesn’t wear them during New Dawn.
- Sins of the Father: Joseph applies this to himself after Ethan dies, saying that Ethan's only fault is that he was Joseph's son.
- Skyward Scream: After Ethan dies of his injuries right in front of him, Joseph cradles his son's body and screams towards the sky.
- He does this again if the Captain refuses to kill him, straight-up pleading for death from the heavens.
Joseph: RELEASE ME! RELEEEAAAAAAAASSSSSSSEEEE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! - Small-Town Tyrant: On a very large scale, as an evil preacher and the leader of a cult which, before the start of the game, had gained control over a large area of rural Montana though his own charisma, brainwashing, bribery and plain old threats. Then once the attempt to arrest him goes disastrously wrong, he unleashes his heavily armed followers to take over the entirety of Hope County by force.
- The Sociopath: The man appears to be unfazed when he (accidentally?) drowns a girl he had indoctrinated into the cult's ways since childhood. He is not entirely this trope, since he at least express affection towards his siblings when each one of them is killed. As of the ending of New Dawn, the full weight of his horrendous actions finally come crashing down on him and he breaks down completely, begging for death at the hands of the player character, and if left alive, will spend his time screaming to the heavens for death.
- Straw Nihilist: Reveals that he's one during the second time you get Marked in Faith's region, saying that humanity is destined to destroy itself and no one can do anything about it. Given all the radio broadcasts tell of this exact thing happening, perhaps he might have a point.
- Storyboard Body: He has the face of a woman tattooed on his right wrist, which he reveals is his deceased wife.
- Suddenly Shouting: The moment after the Deputy has killed all three of his siblings/lieutenants.Joseph: My family... my brothers, my sister, THEY'VE BEEN TAKEN FROM ME! BY A SNAKE! IN THE GARDEN!
- And again in New Dawn when confronting Ethan for letting the Highwaymen break into New Eden and burn it to the ground, right before he grabs a sacred apple. In his defense, Ethan raises his voice first.
Ethan: I will have what you denied me. You gave it to an OUTSIDER! But you wouldn't give it to me! I am your flesh and blood!
Joseph: That was God's will.
Ethan: You don't KNOW! God's will!
Joseph: I was trying to protect YOU, son! - Tattooed Crook: His arms and torso are adorned with various religiously themed tattoos. The names of the Seven Deadly Sins and key Bible verses are also crudely etched into his skin. By the time of New Dawn, several of the etchings have healed over.
- Took a Level in Kindness: He's considerably less vindictive by the time of New Dawn, since he's more interested in keeping his people safe from the Highwaymen than kidnap and brainwash anyone else. He's even willing to ally with the people of Prosperity- most of whom are Resistance members- against the Highwaymen. And he even decided to take care of his son Ethan by raising him to adulthood- he didn't do a good job of it, but that's got to be a step up from smothering his newly-born daughter, right?
- Tranquil Fury: After calming down from his family's deaths, he coldly vows to take it out on the Deputy's friends and supporters.Joseph: I was blind... but now I see. You took my family from me so that I could have yours. We will welcome them with open arms... just as we will welcome you. We will be waiting for you. Where It All Began.
- Unknown Rival: In one of Vaas' memory in his DLC in Far Cry 6, Joseph unknowingly earns the pirate leader's hatred when he explains his version of the definition of insanity on television. Joseph very likely does not know who Vaas is.
- Villain Ball: In the "Resist" final boss fight, he has the protagonists dead to rights, but opts to try and defeat them in a more "spiritual" manner by drugging everyone in the area.
- Villain Has a Point: His prediction of the apocalypse eventually comes true when a mushroom cloud appears in the "Resist" ending. Followed by at least two more during the following escape sequence. Hysterically lampshaded by Pratt upon the realization.
- Though that seems to have been all he was right about, as his revealed dialogue in New Dawn suggest he was expecting a more peaceful post-apocalypse.
- Villainous Breakdown: Goes through an unsteady one when the deputy disrupts his operations and plans and especially when he kills his siblings. It only gets worse from there if the deputy resists Joseph a final time, with Joseph knocking over two barrels of Bliss, ranting and raving to the player as they and their allies are tripping out in the ensuing gunfight.
- At the very end of New Dawn, if the player chooses not to kill him, Joseph will scream to the heavens for "release", being unable to live with the guilt of all that he's done.Joseph: Release me! Release me!
- At the very end of New Dawn, if the player chooses not to kill him, Joseph will scream to the heavens for "release", being unable to live with the guilt of all that he's done.
- Villainous BSoD: By the end of New Dawn, Joseph undergoes this. After the Highwaymen burn his cult village to the ground, and his son (the person responsible for assisting the Highwaymen in burning New Eden, and the only blood family he still has) dies in front of him, the formerly sinister, charismatic preacher is reduced to a broken, sobbing father who carries Ethan's body away from the cave the Captain fought him in. Ultimately considering that his actions in God's name are not something God would be proud of, he begs the Captain to grant him God's justice and kill him.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: With only one exception, every scene with Joseph in the game itself involves him wearing nothing but jeans. It helps show off his religious tattoos. For practical reasons, this is averted in the game's live action tie-in media, including the prequel. By the time of New Dawn, he spends the entire game shirtless.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He thinks an imminent collapse of society will happen in the future and claims that everything he does is in the name of saving as many people as he can. He seems to be revealed to be correct in one of the endings, which has been revealed to be the canon ending.
- You Are Not Alone: In the prequel, having noted that Sara is secretly lonely and has no one to lean on, he utilizes the trope on her, preying on her vulnerability to make her more susceptible to his indoctrination.
- You Bastard!: Pulls this on the Deputy when they meet him for a final confrontation in the final mission. Though considering his actions that led to the plot being kicked off in the first place, whether this is Insane Troll Logic or not is open to interpretation.Joseph: Your friends have been taken and tortured and it's your fault. Countless people have been killed and it's your fault. The world is on fire and it's your fault. Was it worth it? Was it? When are you gonna realize that not every problem can be solved with a bullet?
- As New Dawn reveals that the collapse is real in the forms of Nuclear war and did happen, it's true that everything the Deputy did ruined what could have saved hundreds more people, killed Joseph's current family and left Joseph with nothing but brainwashed enemies on his side. On the other hand, Joseph's actions were clearly in the wrong, and he could have been more peaceful in his ways.
- Once the Deputy declines his final offer to leave, Joseph angrily calls them out, declaring that they’ve doomed everyone and that the Deputy should have listened to him. Considering that Hope County is nuked minutes later…
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The reason there has been a number of women who have held the Faith Seed identity might have to do with his tendency for applying this trope towards them once they fail to be of use to him, as these letters suggest.
Heralds
John Seed
The Inquisitor/The Baptist
Portrayed by: Rob Evors (Inside Eden's Gate)
Voiced by: Seamus Dever (English) (Far Cry 5), Josh Peace (Joseph: Collapse) note
Takes courage... The courage to own your sin, to etch it on to your flesh and carry its burden. So who wants to go first?
Second-youngest of the Seed siblings. John is a lawyer who legally acquired much of Hope County for the Project at Eden's Gate. He is the sibling who controls the southwestern Holland Valley region.
- Amoral Attorney: He's a lawyer who used his position both to legally buy over much of Hope County's land for the cult's use and also to defend his siblings in court whenever one of them gets into legal trouble. Given his position in the cult, it's safe to say that being moral isn't high on his list of principles.
- Ax-Crazy: It's hard to gauge which Seed sibling is the craziest, but John definitely loses his cool and lashes out with violence the quickest when his plans go awry.John: You will confess. Every sin you've ever committed, no matter how petty, no matter how small, I will pull from you.
- Badass Normal: Unlike the other two Heralds, John never resorts to any sort of mind control or hallucinagenic tactics, instead resorting to brute force. All of his fighting in his fighter plane is his own without any sort of means to handicap the Deputy mentally.
- Big Brother Worship: He idolizes Joseph and gets violently jealous when he thinks he's being ignored or chided by him. According to the developers, he hates the junior deputy because he doesn't understand why Joseph is so interested in him/her and wants to break them down so he can understand them.
- *Click* Hello: In the prequel, he pulls this on Hannah, just in time to prevent her from shooting Joseph. Seeing that Mark has already been disarmed and restrained, Hannah drops her gun and surrenders as a result.
- Color Motif: Blue. His shirt and coat are blue, his glasses have blue lenses and he's associated with sky (planes) and water (baptism).
- Domestic Abuse: His adoptive parents were not kind to him.
- Defiant to the End: Before he dies after his dogfight with the Deputy, he calls them out for sabotaging Joseph's efforts and refusing to consider that he could be correct, and his last words of "May God have mercy on your soul" feel more like a parting shot than a pitying blessing.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: He appoints the sin of Wrath upon the Deputy, believing them to be so deep in it they will lash out at anyone, and Eden's Gate happens to be a big excuse for their Wrath... except that Wrath is only a sin when it is directed at innocent people who don't deserve it. And in no way are any of the Seeds considered innocent with what they've done.
- The Dreaded: He has a huge tanker truck called "The Revelation" he brings out when the Deputy causes enough trouble in Holland Valley.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He believes that Faith Seed is far worse than him.
- Evil Genius: In a financial way he's this for the cult. His financial savvy is how they acquired so much land and real estate legally over the years.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: When the Deputy wakes up to find him tattooing them and grabs his arm, he says "Hold still. It's supposed to say 'wrath', not 'rat'."
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: He's regarded as the face of the cult and is highly charismatic. Out of the three brothers, however, he's the most depraved and sadistic.
- Faux Affably Evil: He acts friendly and upbeat. He also served as the propaganda arm to the outside world, putting up signs that say things like "We love you!" and other pleasant messages. But the second things stop going his way he reveals just what a depraved, violent psychopath he really is.
- Flaying Alive: He enjoys tattooing the name of one of the Seven Deadly Sins on a person's flesh, which he thinks the person most epitomizes. He then gets them to confess to the sin and promise to atone, at which point he cuts out the piece of skin with the tattoo on it and pins it to the nearest wall with a staple gun. This treatment, however, is reserved only for those who resist the cult. Join willingly and he lets the scars burn.
- Flipping the Table: If the Deputy refuses to say "Yes" for long enough, he pushes his desk with a tool box and a display of tattooed skin over in sheer anger.
- Foe Romance Subtext: Some of his lines directed towards the Junior Deputy border on the suggestive, as he is deeply intrigued by why Joseph is so interested in them. Adelaide and Sharky even outright suggest that John has sexual feelings towards the Deputy.
- Freudian Excuse: Said to have experienced a very 'traumatizing' life, including abuse at the hands of his parents.
- Friends with Benefits: In the prequel novel, Far Cry: Absolution, a female cult member, Holly, says that she regularly sleeps with John.
- Goggles Do Nothing: In the game, if he's wearing his Sinister Shades, they are always perched on top of his head and never over his eyes. Averted in the prequel, where conversely, he always wears them properly and is never seen not doing so.
- Green-Eyed Monster: John does not like being begrudged and pulled down by his brother, and is jealous of the Junior Deputy because of Joseph's Villain Takes an Interest in them. In the prequel, he is visibly resentful when Joseph gives Jacob an Affectionate Gesture to the Head, but not him.
- Hero Killer:
- According to this note, he killed a man named Alex who came to Hope County with friends to try and infiltrate the cult, and later free some of its members. If this individual is the same Alex who was a protagonist from the prequel, then John certainly fits this trope.
- In the game proper, he averts this; he's the only one of the heralds not responsible for killing a major ally, despite (or possibly because of) his more hands-on approaches. Though he greatly injures Nick Rye, he doesn't manage to kill him, Jerome Jeffries, or Mary Fairgrave.
- According to this note
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He falls victim to this trope twice, both of which eventually lead to his death.
- In the prequel, he recruits Linny into Eden's Gate, while causes the protagonists to investigate the cult and gather footage of the cult's misdeeds that they upload onto the internet. This act would draw the attention of the U.S. Marshals, who come to arrest Joseph, and John himself would be killed in the ensuring conflict between the cult and the Resistance. See Unwitting Instigator of Doom for more details.
- In the game proper, when Jerome refuses to repeat his words when administering a forced confession to Nick, John directs a nearby cultist to Pistol Whip Jerome to the floor. This allows Jerome to use sleight of hand to swap Joseph's book, which John forced into his hands, with his own Bible that was discarded by John. Said Bible is actually a Book Safe with a gun concealed inside. When John next attempts to force Jerome to administer a confession to the Junior Deputy, this allows Jerome to pass the Deputy the gun in the Bible. Once the Junior Deputy gets a hold of the gun and fires it, the cultists are forced to retreat with John, allowing the Deputy to pursue him and finally eliminate him.
- Hostage Situation: Creates two of these over the course of the prequel and the game.
- In the prequel, when Joseph feigns surrender and starts walking towards Hannah, John takes advantage of her distracted state to disarm and restrain Mark. When Hannah attempts to shoot Joseph, John puts a gun to her head, forcing her to surrender when she realizes that he has Mark hostage.
- In the game proper, he does this to Jerome, threatening to Pistol Whip him to the floor each time the Junior Deputy refuses to accept the confession John is forcing the priest to officiate. Unlike his use of this trope in the prequel, it doesn't end well for John this time, as this gives Jerome the opportunity to pass the Junior Deputy a gun, which they use to force John and his men to retreat. The subsequent chase would then end in John's own death.
- Informed Attribute:
- Promotional material and details from Ubisoft states that he is very interested in working his skills on Mary May Fairgrave. However, aside from being kidnapped, she is not affected by John.
- Material from Ubisoft states that he used his position as a lawyer to defend his siblings in court whenever any of them gets into legal trouble. He is not actually seen doing this, nor is any mention is made of it, in the game itself.
- The developers also described him as the player's deadliest enemy because he's a unfettered sadist who can't be reasoned with. There are no points in the game where anyone tries to reason with John and Jacob is just as unfettered as John.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Is heavily implied to utilize this against those he deems as "sinners".
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: In the beginning of the game, John is charming, charismatic, and calm. Derail his plans, and that tends to go fairly quickly.
- King Mook: When fought after the aerial dogfight, John is just a beefed up mook with an assault rifle.
- Knuckle Tattoos: Has these on his hands.
- Laughing Mad: He does this fairly often, and given that he is the most mentally unhinged out of his siblings, it serves to highlight his mania.
- Mark of Shame: He intends for the tattoos he puts on other people to be this, as they are indicative of one of the Seven Deadly Sins that he believes they epitomize. The only way, in his eyes, to remove the mark is for the person to confess to and atone for the sin, at which point he will cut out the flesh the tattoo is on and pin it to the nearest wall with a staple gun.
- Motifs: Planes, his jacket has a plane design to it and he has small tattoos of planes on his forearm. His boss fight takes place as a plane fight.
- Narcissist: Believes himself to be a 'Superman', and loves himself more than he does the cult (and Joseph knows it).
- Precision F-Strike: Refuse to say "Yes" long enough, and after pushing over his desk in anger, John says:John: For fuck's sake! We'll start with you!
- Psychopathic Manchild: John behaves like a psychopathic child towards Joseph, he hates it when Joseph doesn't approve of his actions and is violently jealous towards anyone who is approved by Joseph. He downright looks like a sad, scolded boy about to cry when Joseph reprimands him for trying to drown the Deputy.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: His last words are essentially this to the Junior Deputy, as he believes that by imprisoning people in his penitentiary, he is saving them from the apocalypse, thus he accuses the deputy of dooming them to oblivion by freeing them.
- The Runt at the End: He's the youngest and shortest of the Seed brothers, standing at only 5'10 while both Joseph and Jacob are over 6 feet tall. He's also slightly bowlegged, leading to to a minor fandom theory that he might have suffered from a mild case of rickets as a child.
- Seven Deadly Sins: John is obsessed with trying to find what sin everyone in the County is guilty of, though he's such a psychopath that he perceives trying to raise a family as "greed". John first decrees that the Deputy is guilty of Wrath, and this is even the name of the mission in which you fight him, but in the Resist ending, Joseph thinks the Deputy is more guilty of Pride for refusing to stand down and unknowingly fulfilling the end times.
- Sinister Shades: He is always seen wearing a pair of these in the prequel. In the game proper, he wears them on top of his head in some cutscenes, but never over his eyes.
- Starter Villain: Played with, like Jacob. While you can tackle the Heralds in any order you like, the game encourages you to go after John first, and with his region's flatter, more open terrain and relative lack of elite enemies like the Judges or Angels, it's ideal for beginners. There's also the message Dutch passes along showing John torturing Hudson, which might be considered a Player Nudge, and he also tells you outright that if he were you, he'd go after John first.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The cult property for John's region are red-painted silos. He's using them to store Bliss-infused fertilizer for bomb-making.
- Symbolic Baptism: He appears to be in charge of administering these to cult inductees, as he forces the protagonists in the prequel to undergo one, and later does the same thing to the Junior Deputy in the game.
- Tattooed Crook: His arms have several tattoos. His character trailer suggests that at least some of his tattoos are self applied and symbolic of his past transgressions. The prequel also shows that his hands and fingers are similarly decorated.
- This Cannot Be!: He starts breaking down when The Deputy keeps defying him and refusing to confess any sins. He believes The Deputy has a flaw or has committed a sin and demands it to be exposed to everyone. His says this line after being chastised by Joseph and says it with tranquillity. John sees himself as flawless or redeemed and believes there's no one better himself.John: You will confess. Every sin you've ever committed. No matter how petty. No matter how small... I will pull from you. Then we'll see if you're worthy of atonement.
- Too Kinky to Torture: He mentions this in his backstory, as he was beaten by his parents, until he started to like it. Interestingly though, he didn't get sexual gratification so much as he found it hilarious.
- Torture Technician: He tortures people because he believes that he's giving them courage to reveal their sin.
- Tranquil Fury:
- After the Junior Deputy destroys his giant Hollywood-style "YES" sign, he radios them to threaten them in response. While his tone is even, it's quite clear he's really pissed off.
John: When this little uprising is over, you'll rebuild that piece by piece. You'll work until your fingers are worn to the bone. And when you're done, I'll bury you beneath it.- In the prequel, after Jacob catches the protagonists secretly filming one of the cult's baptisms, John calmly orders that they be forcefully drugged and "baptized", to the point that they nearly drown.
- The Unfettered: He's described by the developers as someone who can't be reasoned with or bargained with. As he's already gone through everything and there's nothing more that can be done to him.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If one looks at the plots of the prequel and the game holistically, and believes that Alex uploading the footage he took of the cult onto the internet is the reason the U.S. Marshals issued the arrest warrant for Joseph in the game, then John certainly fits this trope towards the cult itself. This is because it was him that recruited Linny into the cult in the prequel, which caused Linny's brother, Mark, to become concerned for her safety and enlist the other protagonists to try and rescue her. The protagonists infiltrating the cult is what would allow them to film that footage in the first place. It would be said footage that attracts the attention of the Marshals and kickstart the plot of the game, where the Junior Deputy would eventually decimate the cult, one outcome of which is the deaths of all of Joseph's siblings, including John himself.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: According to Joseph after he is killed, he was this as a child, and became a homicidal psychopath as a result of the abuse he experienced.
- Waistcoat of Style: His most notable fashion accessory.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Invoked. John is the face of the cult and seems to be the one who deals with PR. When he dies, however, Joseph remarks that John was loved by few and feared by many.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He is this towards Joseph, who he considers a father figure as well as a brother. John hates anyone who gets the interest of Joseph and works hard to get Joseph's approval. According to the developers, this is why he hates the junior deputy because Joseph keeps having an interest in them.
- Yandere: John does everything to gain Joesph's approval and when Joseph starts being interested in The Deputy. John immediately gets jealous and devotes himself into finding The Deputy's flaw so he can regain the spotlight.
- Yes-Man: He subscribes to this school of thought, he believes everything should be welcomed with open arms and enabled. Truth is, he was horrifically abused one night by his parents as they believed his silence was a form of guilt and they wanted to beat a confession out of him. They only stopped because John broke down laughing and kept saying "yes". Since then, he believes pain is the only path to absolution.
- You Don't Look Like You: His portrayal in the prequel is drastically different from how he behaves in the game, as he simply acts more like a charismatic preacher and does not exhibit any of the extreme psychosis or mania that define his actions in the game. The actor that portrays him in the prequel, Rob Evors, also doesn't bear a very good resemblance to how the character physically appears in the game. As this highlighted comment and its replies on the prequel's YouTube video indicates, several viewers were quick to notice this disconnect, with some not even realizing that Evors' character was supposed to be John at first.
- You Need to Get Laid: Sharky and Adelaide mention that, given the way John acts around the Deputy, he might have sexual feelings for the Deputy. They suggest that, if the Deputy goes for it, it might make John easier to deal with. It's unclear whether or not this was just Played for Laughs, but it does render the scenes in which John rips open the Deputy's shirt take on a new meaning.
Jacob Seed
The Soldier
Portrayed by: Adam Dorsey (Inside Eden's Gate)
Voiced by: Mark Pellegrino (English) (Far Cry 5), Zachary Bennett (Joseph: Collapse) note
The world is weak. Soft. We have forgotten what it is to be strong.
The big brother of Joseph and eldest of the Seed siblings. A former Army marksman and veteran of the Gulf War who is in charge of the cult's security. He controls the northern Whitetail Mountains region.
- Animal Motifs: His philosophy is embodied by wolves and the animal is seen everywhere in his region. Jacob's loading screen features a wolf, tamed wolves serve as his soldiers as "judges", he uses wolf imagery in his indoctrination stages, and the way he indoctrinates his captives resembles Pavlovian conditioning (who trained dogs to react to a ringing bell). Jacob himself is accompanied by wolves and loves using them as a metaphor. Jacob's alias is "The Wolf" and his presence was marked by a wolf howl. After the boss fight, a wolf will be found in Jacob's place.
- Batman Gambit: His plan for the Junior Deputy. He knew that sooner or later they'd make contact with the Whitetail Militia and capitalized on it by brainwashing them to kill their leader, Eli.
- The Beastmaster: He hosts "Judges", wolves that obey his commands, in addition to normal human mooks.
- Big Brother Instinct: According to Joseph. Jacob was very protective of his younger siblings and he stood up to his parents frequently. He also went against Joseph because he believes that he could have prevented the corrupting influences.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Like Faith, he likes to do this. Although his methods are more about making soldiers than Faith's welcoming serenity.
- Break the Badass: In Collapse, it's revealed that the murder of Miller messed him up more than anyone realised. He was deeply disturbed by Miller's death and he tried to take his own life in a fit of grief and guilt for what he did.
- Cain and Abel: According to the hallucinations in Collapse, Jacob would have killed Joseph in the bunker after realising that his brother was a murderous psychopath.
- Can't Stay Normal: He couldn't readjust from military life and began seeing himself as a predator by nature and by divine purpose.
- Catchphrase: "Cull the herd" or some variation thereof.
- *Click* Hello: In the prequel, he does this to the protagonists from behind after he catches them spying on and filming the cult baptizing new recruits.
- Code of Honour: He was praised by the detention center for his sense of honor and leadership with the other inhabitants. He shows this with The Deputy as he refuses to kill them on the spot after killing Eli.
- Cold Ham: Unlike Joseph's more booming sermons or John's theatrics, Jacob's voice barely goes above a whisper. But he is no less bombastic in what he says.
- Cold Sniper: He's a sniper-type enemy equipped with a customized HTI anti-materiel rifle chambered in .50BMG. A large part of his Boss Battle consists of running from cover to cover to get close enough to him to take him out because he's immune to damage from beyond a certain (short) distance.
- Color Motif: Red. He's a redhead and is associated with the Horseman of War, who is supposed to come on a red horse. His Judges have red crosses painted on their foreheads and the vision the player sees during Jacob's "trials" is tinted red. Player vision going red is also a general indicator of Jacob's Manchurian conditioning kicking in.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: He's camping with a sniper rifle on top of a small mountain when his Boss Battle begins, very far away but still easy to hit for any player with decent sniping skills. Problem is, unless you've closed the distance to ~30 meters, the only thing you can do is knock him down for a few seconds even if you score headshot after headshot with the game's most powerful weapons.
- Crazy Survivalist: Unlike the Whitetails in his territory, he actually plays this trope straight.
- Deadpan Snarker: He mocks the player a few times but still maintains his dry, monotone voice. An example of this is when he has his third encounter with the Junior Deputy. Rather than play the song, he sings it over phone which causes the Deputy to have an episode.
- Death Seeker:
- Jacob believes that his purpose is to be a soldier and holds no regrets or fears when he finally dies. In fact, Jacob says this outright when dealing with his Wolf Beacons after completing the Deputy's Manchurian Agent trials. He calmly speaks about how death and destruction is an endless and natural cycle. He's more or less described by Joseph as a man who never left the war and is a soldier without a cause.
- In the Collapse DLC, Jacob tortured himself with the song Only You by The Platters because the song triggered the memory where Jacob forced himself to kill and eat Miller for the sake of his survival. He was so horrified and guilt-ridden for what he did that he nearly killed himself, but Joseph intervened and pulled the gun away at the last second.
- The Dreaded: Jacob is feared by both the Whitetail Militia and Pratt.
- The Dutiful Son: He was the protector of his brothers and frequently stood up his parents. Since his father went to prison and his mother became neglectful, he took this role. When the brothers were put into foster care, Jacob eventually killed his, John's and Joseph's foster parents in a house fire because of how abusive they were. He also blames himself to some degree for how things turned out for the brothers.
- Evil Redhead: The only Seed brother who has red hair, and one of the most threatening.
- Face Death with Dignity: When he's finally killed, he doesn't plead with the deputy or try to talk them out of their vendetta. He only talks about the past wars and fallen empires and how this is a part of life and a natural cycle. He peacefully sits down on a rock as well.
- From Camouflage to Criminal: His military skills are used in the obviously criminal actions of terrorizing Hope County.
- Hero Killer: According to this note◊, he culled a woman named "H. McCalkin", a woman who planned to join the Marines, after she failed to complete his Training from Hell. If that person is Hannah, a protagonist from the prequel, then Jacob certainly fits this trope.
- History Repeats: Jacob is a firm believer in this, that societies have collapsed multiple times over history, and they always collapse because their people get lazy and complacent. He specifically mentions Babylon and Rome, and, if Faith is to be believed, knows of Greece and Egypt as well.
- This trope doubly applies if the person named Mark he tortured to death in his chalet, Tammy's husband, is the same Mark as the protagonist from the prequel.
- In the game proper, he successfully makes the Deputy kill Eli Palmer via trigger brainwashing and conditioning.
- I Am a Humanitarian: Jacob explains that he was forced to kill and eat Miller, a friend and fellow soldier because they were both stranded in the Iraq desert with no hope of survival. The Whitetail Mountains are also decorated with messages that embrace his butcher or beef mentality.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Jacob remarks that he killed his buddy, Miller, while they were lost in the desert. He remarks that he took no joy in it, but it was either Miller or Jacob. He remarks that this was his trial to overcome.
- Insane Troll Logic: Right after the Deputy has unwittingly killed Eli in one of their brainwashed rampages, Jacob congratulates them on having passed his final test, commends them for having accomplished something nobody else could've pulled off.. and concludes that the Deputy is obviously weak because they are alone at this point in time and therefore deserving of nothing but death. Cue the Boss Battle.
- Interrupted Suicide: In Collapse, Jacob tried to take his own life after reliving the moment where he killed and ate Miller, but Joseph stopped him by pushing the gun away.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: To reach Jacob's final boss fight, the Deputy must climb a mountain.
- Karmic Death: He's killed by The Deputy, someone Jacob psychologically tortures into being a perfect soldier for the cause.
- King Mook: He uses a sniper rifle and is fought like any other sniper. But he's got immunity until the player reaches a certain distance close to Jacob, and even then, can take a lot of punishment.
- Knight of Cerebus: John is the cult's PR head and showcases a more positive side of the cult. Faith is warm and welcoming in her Bliss visions. Jacob has no such pretences and is cold and brutal from start to finish.
- Leitmotif: Jacob uses a music box that plays Only You by The platters to control and indoctrinate his soldiers.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: As he highlights in his last words, humanity's hubris tends to cause the rise and fall of empires, and even states that this will happen to America if the Junior Deputy continues to resist Joseph.
- Lyrical Dissonance: He sings a romantic songnote in his wheezy, low, emotionless voice, making it creepy.
- Made of Iron: Subverted- Taking an anti-materiel rifle's .50BMG bullet to the face merely dazes him for a few seconds because he's coded to be largely immune to damage until you get within a certain distance to him. Once you get in close, a burst of automatic fire or a few loads of buckshot will take him down quickly.
- Manchurian Agent: His bread and butter is creating these, and he triggers them with a special music box that plays "Only You" by The Platters. He inflicted this on several members of the Whitetail Militia and his plan in the game is to turn the deputy into one.
- Miles to Go Before I Sleep: Jacob always wanted to kill himself for what he did to Miller but persevered out of a sense of brotherly duty to his family.
- Might Makes Right: He believes that only the strong should be allowed to live, while the weak are purely sacrificial and to be culled for the strength of the pack.
- Mind-Control Music: He uses a music box to brainwash people, including the Junior Deputy, into attacking others on sight. He also has a trigger song: "Only You" by the Platters, that triggers in his boss fight and in The Stinger of one of the endings.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis:
- Jacob doesn't really care about the religious aspects of the cult. He just wants to fulfil his divine role as a predator and wants to kill The Deputy outright but Joseph doesn't want him to.
- Unlike the other two Heralds, Jacob absolutely wastes no time in capturing the Deputy several times. John Seed at least waits for the Deputy for a showdown in Fall's End and Faith Seed gives the illusion of choice when it comes to entering the bliss (though she'll still try to pull some tricks to prevent the Deputy from evading her forever).
- No Party Like a Donner Party: Jacob and Miller were lost in the desert during the Gulf War. After surviving for 8 days on rations, Jacob realized that only one of them could make the journey. He promptly killed and ate Miller so he could make the rest of the journey.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Jacob isn't as religious as his siblings, and it's implied that he's just paying lip service to the cult so he can survive the end of the world with his family. That, and have a convenient backyard full of toothless scrubs to pit against each other for his twisted boot camp of horrors.
- Only Sane Man: Jacob is the only one of his siblings to question Joseph's beliefs and recognise The Deputy as a threat to their operation.
- Punch-Clock Villain: In comparison to his siblings, he is unenthusiastic about the religious aspects of the cult and Joseph's claims of being a prophet. On the other hand, however, he is very enthusiastic about "culling the herd", believing it to be his duty.
- Redhead In Green: Green and brown, anyway given his camouflage fatigues.
- Revenge Through Corruption: His preference of psychologically torturing wolves into serving him seem to be more due to personal revenge after what happened in Afganistan.
- Rule of Three: Deputy Pratt tells the Junior Deputy that Jacob only needs three brainwashing sessions to fully get into one's head. Sure enough, the fourth hallucination is the one that ends with Eli being shot by the brainwashed deputy.
- Savage Wolves: He has a pack of wolves called "Judges" that fight for him. He also uses wolf imagery to indoctrinate his soldiers.
- Self-Made Orphan: The Book of Joseph reveals that Jacob killed his adopted parents in a house fire.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: According to The Book of Joseph, Jacob developed PTSD after cannibalizing Miller and was discharged from the military so he can receive treatment. Once Jacob ran out of money, he was discharged from the hospital and he lived in a homeless shelter until he was eventually reunited with Joseph and John.
- The Social Darwinist: Jacob believes that people have become soft in the modern age and that the strong have the right to cull the 'weak'. He also appears to be a cannibal.
- Social Media Is Bad: In Jacob's preachings, he believes humanity is weaker because of current technology and culture. He believes society worships false idols and believes their ancestors will be ashamed by this "weakness".
- Sociopathic Soldier: In a nutshell. He sees himself as a predator in a land of prey and wants to strengthen others by psychological torture.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Despite being the most brutish-looking of the Seeds and the cult's militant commander, Jacob speaks in a very soft, and exceptionally creepy voice.
- Soldier vs. Warrior: Jacob shows a clear disdain for people who call themselves heroes and warriors despite never going through the hardships as a soldier.
- Starter Villain: Played with. Jacob requires less Resistance Points than John or Faithnote , and it's very easy to reach Jacob's region from Dutch's island. But nothing forces the player to fight Jacob first.
- The Stoic: Unlike his siblings, Jacob is largely unemotional and doesn't take any joy in the salvation the cult offers. In fact just before he dies, he expresses uncertainty about whether Joseph actually communed with God or not.
- The Strategist: Invokes his military training a lot to effectively plan out moves for the cult.
- Strawman Emotional: Jacob never expresses any emotions and never breaks the tone of his voice.
- Straw Nihilist: He sees his role as a soldier as his divine purpose and holds no fear of death. He doesn't believe in heroes and believes that destruction is a natural and endless cycle.
- Training from Hell: According to a note◊ found in the Grand View Hotel, he is known to put cult inductees through this in order to form the cult's militia. Said note lists the people who failed Jacob's intensive training, one of which may be Hannah, a protagonist from the prequel. See Dropped a Bridge on Him in Hannah's section of this page for more details.
- Villain Takes an Interest: Jacob initially wanted to kill The Deputy and skip the theatrics but starts seeing The Deputy as a worthy opponent.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Jacob only killed his father and adoptive family to save his brothers from their abuse. In the Collapse DLC, he would have killed Joseph after realising the monster he became.
- Worf Had the Flu: He's a psychopath and claims that he'd kill The Deputy in a heartbeat if Joseph hadn't restrained him, which is true considering how easy his hunters were able capture The Deputy. He also uses his music box to capture The Deputy without having to waste ammunition. After killing Eli, Jacob allows The Deputy to live and waits outside for their fight.
- Worthy Opponent: He seems to see the Junior Deputy as one. He claims that could have killed the Deputy immediately if he wanted to but Joseph told him not to. In the boss fight Jacob mockingly praises the Deputy for their role as an assassin and brainwashed soldier.
Faith Seed
The Siren
Portrayed by: Mackenzie Lawrén (Inside Eden's Gate)
Voiced by: Jenessa Grant (English) (Far Cry 5), Diana Peressini (Joseph: Collapse) note
I know you've heard stories about me. That I'm a liar, a manipulator. Let me tell you a different story...
Real name Rachel Jessop, "Faith" was adopted by Joseph as a sister and given said name by him after being welcomed to the cult. She is said to "keep the flock rowing in the right direction", and works with the Bliss drug the cult is hooked on. Faith controls the southeastern Henbane River region.
- Ambiguously Evil: Downplayed. She is aware of the murders and the rampage the Seeds are doing, however, it is unknown to which measure she is evil. Faith states during her boss fight that she had no choice, and she was a weak seventeen year old girl at the time. Of course, she has no problem with lying and, like any mental manipulator, will say anything to get someone on her side. She is also quite violent herself, frequently seen shoving the Deputy in the visions and encouraging Burke to shoot members of the Resistance, then blowing his own brains out.
- Animal Motifs: She is associated with butterflies due to the amount of butterflies in the bliss and how she gains wings that resemble butterfly wings. Burke is decorated with butterflies while he's indoctrinated and under her commands.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: The prequel demonstrates that she has this trait, as she is quickly notices that Sara has Dull Eyes of Unhappiness and also discerns that she Hates Being Alone simply through that feature. She then exploits this to persuade Sara to join Eden's Gate, realizing that she is the least likely to resist Joseph's advances out of her friends.
- The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest among her siblings.
- Bad Boss: John Seed calls her this. She creates her Angels by force-feeding the victims Bliss and she regularly mistreats them.
- Beauty Is Bad: Despite being very attractive, she is still a member of Eden's Gate.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted, by the end of Faith's boss fight she's just as bloody and injured as Jacob and John.
- Berserk Button: Snapping people out of the hallucinations she induces in them, as it takes away her ability to control them.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Her angelic exterior hides a deeply mentally disturbed and sadistic interior.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Seems to inflict this (and then some) on new recruits, by way of a hallucinogenic gas that induces Mind Screw. Joseph calls this 'helping the blind to see'. In contrast to the other Seeds, who communicate with you via your radio, Faith "communicates" with you through visions brought on by Bliss.
- In the prequel, she drugs tea that Sarah willingly drinks.
- Break Them by Talking: Barely a minute goes by in the Henbane River area without hearing her sermons, either from loudspeakers near her bases or from the creepy hallucinations of herself that appear ever more frequently the higher your resistance score gets.
- Catchphrase: "Welcome to the Bliss", spoken whenever she ensnares the Junior Deputy in one of her hallucinations.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: She cheerfully vacillates between talking about being suicidal and giggling about how she met the Father without skipping a beat. Of course, this is also a hallucination.
- Color Motif: Green and white. She's associated with Death/Pestilence, who is supposed to arrive on a "pale horse", with "pale" in Greek (khlōros, same word that is the root of "chlorophyll") meaning "green/ish". She's wearing a white dress and is often surrounded by clouds, while her region, mired in Bliss haze, is light green. Bliss itself is produced from datura flowers,which are usually white.
- Also, while the Seed brothers are associated with primary colors (yellow, blue and red), green is a secondary color, indicating Faith was a later addition to their group and isn't related to them.
- Consummate Liar: Her most prominent trait. Everyone in the Resistance flat-out tells the Junior Deputy to never believe anything she says.
- The Corrupter: Faith's bliss messages are full of this, constantly trying to instill doubt in the Deputy about the worth of his/her allies.
- Cute and Psycho: Girlish and beautiful on the outside, raging lunatic on the inside.
- Death Seeker: Faith claims she was once suicidal until she was enlightened by the Father. How much of this is the truth or mere cult propaganda used to make the drug-induced visions seem more divine is unclear. There's implications in her boss fight that she may still be this subconsciously as she seems to give the Deputy more ammo, and as her health bar gets to its lowest, she doesn't try to to kill the Deputy as hard as she previously tried.
- Driven to Suicide: She inflicts this on other people via her drugs, by tricking them into scaling Joseph's statue and then jumping from it. She does this to the Junior Deputy, but they manage to survive the ordeal. Tellingly, the bottom of the statue is littered with the corpses of people who did jump under Faith's influence.
- Later, she induces Marshal Burke to blow his brains out after the Junior Deputy frees him from her hallucinations.
- Dude Magnet: She's quite popular with the men of Hope County but it doesn't end well for them.
- Evil Former Friend: As this letter indicates, back when she was known as Rachel, she used to be good friends with Tracey, until she joined the cult and assumed the "Faith Seed" identity. In the game proper, Tracey clearly feels little in the way of affection for Faith, as she is often seen warning other characters about Faith's deceitfulness, and after Faith induces Marshall Burke to kill Vergil, she straight up demands that the Junior Deputy kill Faith to avenge the mayor.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Of all of the Far Cry series' antagonists, Faith looks the most innocent. She has a kind and melodious voice, smiles and laughs openly, skips around, takes people like the Deputy by the hand like she's a child leading an adult, and possesses a pure beauty. She also seems to force new recruits into Mind Rape hallucinations and attempts to murder the Junior Deputy. Literally speaking, she looks like a stereotypical angel while doing things like stabbing people with needles.
- Faux Affably Evil: Faith acts as an carefree and sweet little angel towards the Junior Deputy, but trusting her is a grave mistake as she's also a Consummate Liar who inflicts Mind Rape using Bliss.
- Femme Fatale: As an extremely beautiful and angelic young woman with a childish and quirky personality, Faith was able to seduce many men to her side.
- Flunky Boss: Her boss battle consists of her sending hoards of frenzied druggies at the player, while she strikes from a distance.
- Foreshadowing: She warns the Deputy with her dying words that if they don't listen to Joseph, "he will be right". Should you pick the "Resist" ending, that is exactly what happens as his crazy ramblings about society falling do come to pass. Leading to the events of New Dawn.
- The Ghost: Played with. She does make quite a few appearances, but she's only ever met and fought in hallucinations, never in the flesh.
- Giggling Villain: In her visions, Faith is often seen giggling like a schoolgirl, and she's a major antagonist.
- Hero Killer: Her victims are Vergil Minkler, killed by a brainwashed Cameron Burke, as well as Burke himself via suicide.
- History Repeats: One of Faith's messages remarks that the Collapse is very scary, but humans have dealt with collapses before, specifically bringing up the collapses of Greece, Rome, and Egypt.
- Hypocrite: The first time you 'meet' her, she tells the deputy her tragic backstory, being an abused drug addict who was taken in by Joseph Seed. It would be much easier to feel sympathy for her if her primary modus operandi didn't consist of pumping people full of psychedelic drugs to convert them to Eden's Gate, often turning them into mindless Technically Living Zombies in the process.
- Innocent Flower Girl: She appears to be this at first due to her appearance and frequent association with white flowers. However, this trope is actually inverted as she has the Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon and the flowers are actually the source of the drugs she uses to brainwash people.
- It's Personal: She feels this way towards the Junior Deputy after they free Marshal Burke from her hallucinatory trances.
- Klingon Promotion: Got her position in the cult by murdering her predecessor.
- Legacy Character: After her death, Joseph states that she was not the first to have the name "Faith", implying that there were women who previously held her position in the cult. Some of the letters you can find add credence to this, where some question their female sibling/friend on why they've joined the cult and/or are calling themselves "Faith". The Far Cry 6 Collapse DLC also reveals that the Faith seen in the game murdered her predecessor.
- Light Is Not Good: Dresses in white, has a white flower in her hair, sprouts angelic wings in hallucinations, and is a murderous, lying psychopath under that surface purity.
- Master of Illusion: She has a seemingly supernatural ability to create illusions through hallucinogenic drugs to the point that it's not even clear what's actually happening when you deal with her.
- Mad Scientist: She’s in charge of the manufacturing of the Bliss drug, and like her colleagues, she's as crazy as a shithouse rat.
- Never Found the Body: Unlike Jacob and John, the player cannot find Faith's corpse as she was seemingly killed in a hallucinated river that does not exist within the game world. No one ever mentions finding her body either. The only indication the player gets that she is really dead is Joseph Seed's eulogy for her.
- The Ophelia: An evil version: A beautiful childish young woman in white walking around, barefoot, with flowers... who brainwashes people with drugs. Also, she even dies in a stream just like the original Ophelia.
- Palm on Cheek Pose: In the prequel, she does this to the protagonists upon meeting them for the first time, ostensibly to seem affectionate and welcoming, but in actuality, she is scanning them for features that might make them easier to indoctrinate. This is hinted at when she lingers on Sara's face for much longer than the others, allowing her to notice Sara's Dull Eyes of Unhappiness and single her out for Joseph to focus his brainwashing on.
- Poisonous Person: Her hallucinations start with her blowing a large amount of Bliss in the Deputy’s face.
- Power Gives You Wings: In her Bliss visions, she can fly and has glowing white angelic wings. Subverted, because it's a hallucination; she has no actual power.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: She dispatches Marshal Burke by activating his brainwashing. She later tries to do the same to Sheriff Whitehorse, but the Deputy manages to stop it in time.
- Psychic Powers: While everything experienced in the Bliss visions has to be taken with a grain of salt, it's heavily hinted that the Bliss grants her a degree of mental projection, telepathy, and even physical control over people affected by the drug. How she does this, and why the drug doesn't affect her the same way it does everyone else, is never explained.
- Replacement Goldfish: These letters suggest that the women who have borne the "Faith Seed" identity are this to Joseph, and hint that the previous bearers of the identity eventually met unfortunate ends. The Far Cry 6 Collapse DLC confirms this by revealing that "Faith" was the name of Joseph's deceased wife.
- Schmuck Bait:
- Hallucinations of her frequently appear near the Deputy for as long as she lives, but shooting or simply touching them dispels them. Do this at medium to high resistance levels in the Henbane River region and a bunch of real enemies (usually angels) will pop up instead of the hallucination.
- There's also a capture sequence that is activated when you see a Peggie holding a civilian at gunpoint, trying to free the captive causes a hallucination.
- Sugar Bowl: The hallucinatory world that indoctrinates cultists appears as an idyllic paradise where butterflies land on your fingers and Faith appears to literally become an angel ascending into heaven. Of course, it's all smoke and mirrors.
- Tattooed Crook: While she doesn't have anywhere near the amount of tattoos Joseph and John do, she does have "C17H21NO4" tattooed on her left forearm, which is the chemical formula for a cocaine molecule, hinting at her past as a drug addict.
Special Members
Cult VIPs
- Amazon Brigade: Priestesses are an entirely female subgroup that are found guarding Bliss Shrines in Faith's territory.
- Bald of Evil: The Butchers and Scientists are bald men in dirty aprons.
- Beard of Evil: Male VIPs tend to have thick bushy beards.
- The Berserker: Some of them only carry melee weapons and will rush any hostiles they find on their turf.
- Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: Though their clothes use the same black and white color scheme of the regular cultists they can be easily identified by their more unique outfits which include aprons, goggles, masks, gloves, no shirts and sleeveless jackets plus skirts.
- Elite Mooks: All of them can soak up a bit more firepower than the basic cult soldiers.
The Chosen
- Ace Pilot: They begin showing up in powerful attack planes one the Deputy has sufficiently pissed off one of the Heralds.
- Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: They wear special gray coats and red ski masks, making them easy to spot.
- Elite Mooks: Their are some of the Peggies best warriors and are often called in to deal with special threats against the project.
Angels
- Ax-Crazy: They spend their days gibbering religious verses over and over again, however, they’ll respond to anybody that isn’t one of the Peggies or a fellow Angel by devolving into screaming maniacs and attacking them until either they’re dead or the Angel has been killed themselves.
- Bald of Evil: They all sport shaved heads.
- The Berserker: They have no other tactic than rushing the Deputy with melee attacks until one of the two is dead.
- It Can Think: A minor level, but sometimes they will hang back and attack by throwing rocks at their target instead of mindlessly charging inwards.
- Made of Iron: They can regularly be seen collapsing momentarily after being riddled with bullets only to jump right back up and continue fighting seconds later. A headshot is the only way to reliably take one down permanently.
- Technically-Living Zombie: Their minds have been lost to the Bliss, making them zombies in all but name.
- Tragic Monster: You really can’t help but feel bad for these poor bastards. Their sanity has been stripped away against their will by heavy doses of Bliss and are now the savage, mindless slaves of their captors, the process of which can be seen while in John’s bunker. There’s no cure for their condition, so the only way to help them out is euthanasia.
- Unstoppable Rage: They go positively rabid on any non-Peggie they find, pursuing their target impressive distances while attacking them mindlessly violently, and because they’re hopped up so much on Bliss, can take a fairly high level of damage before finally succumbing to their wounds.
Other Members
The Cook
- Arc Villain: He only appears in person during the "A Dish Served Cold" mission, where he is killed for his many terrible crimes against the residents of Hope County.
- Evil Counterpart: Being a Pyromaniac for Eden's Gate he serves as this for the Resistance's own Pyromaniac Sharky Boshaw.
- Expy: As a psychopathic pyromaniac who has committed several nasty atrocities, serves as an optional miniboss, uses a flamethrower as his primary weapon and has a nickname of Cook, he draws significant comparisons to Cook-Cook.
- More Despicable Minion: He is not in the higher rankings of Eden's Gate, but he is so brutal that he goes against the orders and standards of Eden's Gate for essentially no reason.
- Pyromaniac: He uses a flamethrower as his main weapon and is known as the Cook... so yeah, kind of obvious.
- Would Hurt a Child: He doesn't even spare children from his torture.
Other Hope County Residents
Holland Valley Residents
Kim Rye
Voiced by: Mayko Nguyen (English)note
Click to see her in New Dawn.
Nick's pregnant wife.
- Ascended Extra: While she is a minor character in 5, in New Dawn she is the leader of Prosperity.
- Crushing Handshake: A variation between her and Nick. When she goes into labor, she grabs her husband's hand so hard he immediately starts whining like a little schoolgirl. It then becomes a Running Gag during the subsequent mission.
- Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife: She definitely seems to have more common sense than her husband at least.
- Damsel in Distress: Needs to be protected from peggies in Nick's recruitment mission (although she doesn't appear in person yet), and later rushed to the doctor when she goes into labor earlier than expected.
- Dare to Be Badass: Invokes this with Nick, who at first wants to leave town because of her pregnant state. But Kim will have none of it.
- Deadpan Snarker: When Nick delightedly compares himself and the Deputy to Butch and Sundance, Kim dryly reminds him how these two ended up, which deflates him pretty quick.
- Happily Married: To Nick Rye, your trusty crop duster ace pilot.
- Lampshade Hanging: The side mission to get her to the doctor so she can deliver her baby takes increasingly insane turns, which she will eventually begin to point out.
- Supporting Leader: In New Dawn, she's the de-facto leader of Prosperity since Nick has been kidnapped for some time as of the start of the game.
Larry Parker
- Apocalyptic Log: Larry is already dead by the time Nick arrives on Mars. Notes written by him are scattered throughout the map and will direct Nick to places of interest.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Complete with wild shaggy hair and talking about "them, man!"
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: As you find out at the end of his quest line.
- Disintegrator Ray: Finishing his short mission chain unlocks the Magnopulser weapon that vaporizes organic targets with microwaves in close quarters combat. It's also possible he himself ended up on the business end of a much bigger version instead of actually being teleported away, considering what's left of him after all is said and done.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Like Hurk and Nick, Larry was also teleported to Mars to help Anne in preventing the Arachnid invasion but was dead by before Hurk arrived.
- Hero of Another Story: What Larry claims to be. He thinks the cult antics are small potatoes to the alien invasion happening (that only he believes in).
- Large Ham: Has a very (at least partly deliberately) over-the-top way of talking that often veers into No Indoor Voice.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's possible he was teleported to another world by his device. It's also possible he was disintegrated. The vision of something if you try to go with him further complicates the issue.
- Smoldering Shoes: The only thing that's left of him after he's teleported away by (presumably) aliens.
Nadine Abercromie
- Collection Sidequest: She wants the Deputy to collect twelve comic books around Hope County. The comic books are of the confirmed DLC's in Far Cry 5's Season Pass.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She initially holes up in her bunker during the Collapse, but when the Highwaymen make their entrance to Hope County, she sees the writing on the wall and gets out of Holland Valley before they begin causing her trouble.
Zip Kupka
- Conspiracy Theorist: He thinks the government is behind Eden's Gate. He's wrong.
- Friend to All Living Things: The reason he needs you to help him put down the Bliss Soaked animals in his first mission? He used to work at the farm they're at and is too emotionally attached to the animals, even calling out their names and giving them eulogies when you kill them. Unfortunately for him, his attempt at leaving a trap for Eden's Gate results in him killing a number of cows who he also knows by name.
- No Shirt, Long Jacket: Zip wears a long camo print jacket, but no shirt underneath it.
- Playing with Fire: He likes his flamethrower, and torches a few Bliss-soaked and berserk animals.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Like any rank and file conspiracy theorist, he believes Eden's Gate is government-funded, and plans to stop them by sabotaging the farm supplying "mind control meat" and blowing up the old mine to cut off their funding. Coincidentally, Eden's Gate does have forces occupying these two places, but probably for Bliss experimentation and their own funding, respectively.
- Stuff Blowing Up: His final mission involves blowing up a shipment of gold the cult is using to secure supplies.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Downplayed. His shirt is on, but unbuttoned.
Wendell Redler
Click to see him in Hours of Darkness.
- Voiced by: Billy MacLellan (Hours of Darkness) (English)note
A retired Vietnam veteran who wants to collect his former war buddies's lighters so their stash doesn't fall into the hands of the cult.
- Collection Sidequest: He offers one to collect Vietnam-era lighters.
- Hero of Another Story: He's Hours of Darkness' playable protagonist, allowing the player to experience his legend firsthand.
- Jawbreaker: Due to the absence of knives as melee weapons in Far Cry 5, if Wendell is attacked by North Vietnamese crocodiles in Hours of Darkness, he has to free himself and kill those crocodiles by snapping their jaws with his hands.
- The Leader: Naturally, as the protagonist, he'll lead his captured friends to safety once he rescues them in Hours of Darkness.
- Meaningful Name: His nickname back in 'Nam was "Cowboy", owing to his Montanan origins. In the present day, he wears a nifty cowboy hat, probably in tribute to that name.
- One-Man Army: In the hands of a seasoned player, he'll be this for a good majority of Hours of Darkness.
- Old Soldier: He remarks that his age has really caught up with him.
- Retired Badass: He has really made a name for himself back in Vietnam. Nowadays, he just lives out his old age quietly in his home of Hope County.
- Would Hit a Girl: Doesn't treat the female Viet Cong fighters he meets in Hours of Darkness any differently from the men, subjecting them to the same brutal finishers.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Rescuing his comrades and especially the defected Vietnamese POWs both count as collectibles for Hours of Darkness, and is a reflection of Wendell's Nice Guy tendencies.
Henbane River Residents
Xander Flynn
Adelaide's young squeeze, Xander is a man from southern California who originally thought to open a smoothie stand in Montana, which was an untapped market. While this failed, he did catch the affections of an older, wealthier woman named Adelaide, so he stuck around.
- Affectionate Parody: Xander is absolutely one of the general stereotype of Gen. Y Millennials; a naive, adventurous, Granola Guy/Girl who is very sheltered on the nature of the world - for crying out loud, the guy tried to open up a smoothie stand in an active war zone! Despite Xander's air-headedness, this stereotype is rarely, if ever, portrayed mockingly, and the game makes it clear that Xander is a good guy who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: According to Adelaide, his dick is bigger than his brain. Of course, that's not saying much.
- Brainless Beauty: He has washboard abs, smooth skin and perfect hair. And that's it.
- Drugs Are Bad: Surprisingly for a hippie type, he hates drugs and his mission involves destroying them.
- Good Is Dumb: He's got a heart of gold, but a brain the size of a penny. He also doesn't get Adelaide's frequent Double Entendre dialogue until the very end of his quest.Xander: Addie was right about you. A ten-gallon hat with spurs! I think that was a sex thing. You can never tell with her.
- Granola Girl: Gender-inverted, but pretty much spot on: Believes in being eco-friendly, yoga for spiritualism, and chakras. He also wants to open up a smoothie stand at the marina.
- Kind Hearted Simpleton: He's a dumb guy who also happens to be one of the most genuinely nice characters in the entire series.
- Likes Older Women: His age isn't mentioned, but he's probably in his late 20s. Adelaide is over 60.
- Meal Ticket: Subverted. Xander's youth (and Addie's lush bank account) seems to imply this trope. Addie is the one who is chasing him, but he genuinely likes her and finds her to be a lot of fun.
- Nice Guy: Despite being a bit of a light-weight mentally, Xander is a sweetheart who wishes the best for everybody.
Guy Marvel
The director of Blood Dragon, third installment of the series made famous by Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Determined to shoot his next scene in Hope County.
- A Day in the Limelight: He is the central character of the Dead Living Zombies DLC, which deals with him attempting to pitch his films to various filmmakers.
- All for Nothing: Visiting what's left of his house in New Dawn reveals that the world ended in nuclear fire just as he had finalized his masterpiece that would've catapulted him to fame and wealth (or so he thought at least). Unsurprisingly, he was pissed at this turn of events.
- Ax-Crazy: He really gets into your slaughtering of Angels during his second mission.
- CatchPhrase: Picture this.
- Character Development: Averted. None of Guy's movies have any character development or hidden morals.
- Can't Take Criticism: In his DLC, any of the actors or directors’ attempts to add to his rather bland ideas are either ignored, blown off, or send him into a hissy fit.
- Finger Framing: Each DLC mission begins with Guy explaining to different script writers to "picture this" while doing this.
- Manchild: Guy is completely obsessed with guns, explosions and deaths in his money and doesn't bother about character development at all. It is no wonder why people do not want to produce his money in the early missions of the DLC.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He looks like a fat Michael Bay and shares his bombastic and shallow filmmaking style.
- Prima Donna Director: This guy is the least suitable person to put in charge of directing a blockbuster.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: You can find a note in the ruins of his house in New Dawn that contains one of his usual profanity-laden rants about how the apocalypse denied him his shot at glory as an acclaimed director. Furious at how fate screwed him over, Marvel headed out into the still-burning world, never to be seen again. Given his lack of stated survival skills it's unlikely he made it far before succumbing to radiation and exposure.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Seems to be the only film genre he knows how to do.
Sherri Woodhouse
Owner of the King of Worms Fishing Store, Sherri is trying to help keep up spirits in the Henbane River region.
- Collection Sidequest: Getting the barrels of whiskey.
- Gargle Blaster: The whiskey she's obtaining is said to kick like a mule.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: She wants to satisfy the Resistance with aged libations.
Aaron "Tweak" Kirby
A junkie holed up in the ghost town of Prosperity whose father was a member of Eden's Gate.
- The Atoner: Of the "Sins of Our Fathers" variety. His father is partially responsible for the development of Bliss, so he wants to use his skill at chemistry to make things right.
- Cult Defector: Tweak has a deep amount of knowledge about Jacob's cult, has a room filled with writings about how their untrustworthy liars, and is the son of a former cult member whose actions he feels a need to atone for. While never outright stated, all of this implies that he may have been part of the cult himself once, but broken away when he was young.
- Dumpster Dive: Finds a lot of his ingredient this way.
- Expy: Of Jesse Pinkman, maybe. Both are emotionally unstable, easily distracted addicts who have a surprisingly high knowledge of chemistry. Both know an older man who makes drugs with whom they disagree on ethics. All of this could be a coincidence, but the fact that he shares his first name with Jesse's actor makes one wonder.
- Functional Addict: Kinda. He's very clearly addled by drug usage, but he's still an accomplished chemist who can mix up homeopathic recipes that make them far more efficient. He also acknowledges the fact that it's probably for the best that you go handle Eden's Gate and not him.
- Hidden Depths: One of his notes found in Prosperity uses actual medical terms like tachycardianote to describe the side effects of his drugs, and his theories on how to improve the formula use proper chemistry terms as well. This all from a man who talks to mannequins and tells you to beat pigs to death because they deserve it.
- Like Father, Like Son: Ironically enough, he and his father are both excellent chemists. It's just his father was a member of Eden's Gate.
- Noodle Incident: Whatever it was that made him hate pigs so much, as he never elaborates during "Fast".
- Room Full of Crazy: Inverted. his lab is covered with rambling writings, but they're Tweak's affirmations that Joseph Seed is lying and not to trust him.
Whitetail Mountains Residents
Hurk Drubman Sr.
A man running for the Senate, former husband of Adelaide, and father to Hurk.
- Absurdly Youthful Parents: He doesn't look that much older than his son, in contrast to Adelaide Drubman.
- Abusive Parents: He openly demeans Hurk, forces him to sleep outside because he lost Drubman Sr.'s campaign truck, is completely fine with setting him up as a patsy for his illegal activities, and regularly asks the Deputy to never bring his son back to him when Hurk goes off on missions.
- Asshole Victim: He's such a bigoted politician and abusive father, that you'll be happy to hear he died in New Dawn, possibly from radiation poisoning.
- Blatant Lies: Of course he would never ask you to murder people that won't vote for him because that's illegal (well, technically illegal, unfortunately), but if those same people would have unfortunate accidents like, say, stumbling and falling on a dozen bullets or some such, well... that would be quite the coincidence, wouldn't it?
- Cigar Chomper: He has a cigar between his fingers when you first meet him.
- Comedic Sociopathy: His treatment of his son and his murderous schemes to get rid off anyone standing in the way of his political ambitions are mostly Played for Laughs.
- Corrupt Politician: When told by his campaign advisors that he will likely lose his run for state senate due to the likelihood of the Project Eden members voting against him, Hurk Sr. hires the Deputy to make sure the cultists never show up to the voting booth. His dialogue implies he's considered doing the same to other voting demographics he doesn't like, but the Project Eden cult are the only ones he can get away with.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: It's stated in New Dawn that eventually he lost patience with sharing a bunker with his son and nephew and decided he'd sooner take his chances with the radiation poisoning. Sure enough, he died.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: He's technically "good" because he's opposed to the Peggies, but he's one racist old man who happens to speak with a raspy voice on account of all that smoking he does.
- Fat Bastard: Not as fat as his son, but he does have a visible paunch when he sits down, and he's a lot less friendly than Hurk Jr.
- Jerkass: He acts like a hateful old prick in all of his interactions with the Deputy and his son.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: His political campaign, stance against immigrants, and claims to "Make Hope County Great Again" seems to be jabs directed at Donald Trump.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: After finally not feeling able to put up with his son or his nephew any longer, Hurk Sr. decided to leave the bunker and take his chances with the radiation. See Dropped a Bridge on Him to find out how well that went.
- Straw Character: He is every right-wing conservative stereotype exaggerated to a comical extreme, with a deep hatred of anything liberal, intellectual, or Canadian.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Although he's technically on the side of "good" because he's opposed to the cult, he's still an open bigot who has no qualms about ordering the Deputy to commit ghastly acts of violence against his political opponents.
- Trumplica: Despite not having blonde hair or wealth like Trump does, he is a corrupt politician who's bigoted towards Canadians and wants to "build a wall" to keep them out. Even the mission title is "Make Hope Great Again".
Dr. Sarah Perkins
A government doctor who was studying the wolves in town, Sarah is targeted by the cult and helped out by Eli's militia.
- Badass Bookworm: She packs a pistol and will defend herself if attacked, but first and foremost, she's known for her smarts.
- Fluffy the Terrible: She actually finds the Judges adorable. But she fully plans on helping the Deputy find a way to deal with them.
- Not That Kind of Doctor: She works with animals, not humans.
- Recruitment by Rescue: How she became acquainted with the Whitetails, although she didn't technically join them. Also how she begins work with the Deputy.
Bo Adams
A cowboy survivalist who is friends with Eli's militia, he helps the Junior Deputy learn some survival skills in the Whitetail Mountains.
- In Harmony with Nature: Bo believes in living this way, minus his coffee. He also remarks that the Deputy should respect nature and live in harmony with it.
- Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair: He remarks that man's monuments will pass and nature will be all that remains soon enough.
- Must Have Caffeine: He's never seen without a cup of coffee.
- The Stoic: His facial expression is kind of stony.
Skylar Kohrs
An expert fisherwoman, Skylar teaches the deputy some fishing tips.
- Arch-Nemesis: Downplayed, non-violent example, but she's one of many fisher(wo)men that tried and failed for years to catch the Admiral, a unique sturgeon (the only Russian sturgeon in the game, in fact), something that seems to cause her no small amount of frustration.
- Braids of Action: Wears her hair in a thick, long braid and, in an Offscreen Moment of Awesome, managed to fend off several armed peggies on her own while she was fishing in her boat.
- It's Up to You: Says this verbatim when she asks the Deputy to catch the Admiral in her stead.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Dylan, her roommate in their shared trailer. They've known each other since they were kids. She's not interested in romance, but the two of them do plan to leave together.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Her plan is to sell a legendary fish for enough money to get outta Dodge.
- In New Dawn, she does this before the events of the game, after Dylan is killed by her booby-trapped bunker door. She admits that she doesn't even feel sad about his death, since after so many years of him being the only thing keeping her from leaving, she's finally just ready to leave it all behind in the wake of the apocalypse.
- Take Up My Sword: Her efforts to catch the Admiral on her own are cut short when she gets jumped by some peggies and injures her arm fending them off, forcing her to put the matter in the Deputy's capable hands. Hooking the beast awards the second-best fishing rod available, which is heavily implied to have been hers before she left the county for good.
Dave Fowler
One of Cheeseburger's two handlers along with his brother Wade, Dave was responsible for managing the F.A.N.G center.
- Collection Sidequest: He's trying to recover the Cheeseburger bobblehead dolls he created. He also made T-shirts of Cheeseburger.
- Money, Dear Boy: Invoked In-Universe. Cheeseburger might be an interesting draw, but he can't bring in the money by himself. Thus, Dave created merch to sell. And with the cult's activities creating a shortage of supply, he can sell them for a huge profit online.
Wade Fowler
One of Cheeseburger's two handlers along with his brother Dave, Wade's job was to take care of Cheeseburger and the other animals.
- Friend to All Living Things: He can even make friends with bears.
- In Harmony with Nature: He's not a full fledged Granola Girl, but he does believe in being friendly with nature.
Other Characters
Agent Willis Huntley
- Flanderization: Huntley's jingoism has always been part of his characterization, but by the time of the events of FC 5 it's pretty much the only defining trait he has left (aside from being a massive jackass). He's actually on vacation when you meet him, touring the states in ascending order of patriotism.
- Jerkass: He's the same abrasive, lying, exploitative asshole we remember from previous titles. Granted, he doesn't insult or betray you like he did Ajay in FC 4, and he does pay you, but he still enlists your help with promises of support, only to leave you high and dry once he has what he wanted.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: You can repay him for betraying Ajay in Far Cry 4 by shooting him at the end of the mission before he leaves. He won't get up from the ground, and you can leave him for dead. And since he doesn't appear in New Dawn, presumably he did die.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: He's more concerned with completing his mission and leaving, though he does help a bit before bolting.
- Once per Episode: Like Hurk, he's shown up in Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4.
- Pulled from Your Day Off: He mentions that he was on vacation before getting tasked with locating what is strongly implied to be the infamous supposed Donald Trump "pee tape". Unlike most examples of this trope, Willis really doesn't seem to mind his vacation being interrupted - in fact, he seems overjoyed at being given this mission.
- Rank Up: He's made Chief of Staff for completing his mission.
Clutch Nixon
A late stuntman who completed many stunts around Hope Valley.
- Badass Driver: He completed all of his stunts with crafts on the land, water, and sky.
- Drunken Master: "Spray and Pray" mentions that he did the stunt in question while so drunk that he "never regained full conscious control of his bladder." Several other stunts make reference to Clutch being drunk while doing them as well.
- Hidden Depths: If "Descente Dans la Folie" is any indication, he was a strong advocate of children's literacy programs. "Old Glory Holes" also makes mention of him publishing erotic poetry.
- Leitmotif: A version of "The Ballad of Evel Knievel" by the Road Vikings that replaces all uses of Knievel's name with Nixon's.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The descriptions of some of Nixon's "stunts" make it clear, if one reads between the lines, that they weren't so much "stunts" but Nixon just being grossly irresponsible (e.g. drunk driving his burning car into a river became a "stunt") or genuinely rather unwell (e.g. jumping off a mountain to his presumed death happened at the "peak of his mental and physical health").
- Never Found the Body: The “Godspeed” challenge tells that he jumped off a mountain in a wingsuit and was never seen again until being declared legally dead.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's a parody of the late Evel Knievel.
- Patriotic Fervor: Every Clutch Nixon quest starts with an American bald eagle chasing an explosion. The quests themselves involve driving through rings of red, white, and blue stars.
- Posthumous Character: He died in 1977, Maybe.
Inside Eden's Gate characters
Characters that appear in the live-action prequel film, Far Cry 5: Inside Eden's Gate. Alex
Portrayed by: Kyle Gallner
A vlogger who infiltrates Eden's Gate along with Hannah, Sara, and Mark in order to locate Mark's sister, Linny.
- Action Survivor: Unlike Hannah, Alex doesn't have any military training. But he can fire an assault rifle to great effect while escaping Eden's Gate.
- Armed Altruism: Despite holding an assault rifle, he opts to give it to Hannah so that she can hold off the pursuing cultists while he flees with the footage they took of the cult's activities. As a result, he's left unarmed and unable to resist when Joseph and his brothers finally catch up to him.
- Bring Help Back: That's his goal at the end when Hannah and Mark try to buy him time.
- Defiant to the End: He responds to Joseph's demand that he surrender by revealing that he manage to upload the footage taken of the cult to the internet, telling the cult leader that he is in for a fight whether he likes it or not. He's then dragged off kicking and screaming by Jacob and John.
- Determinator: Despite being shot in the leg by Jacob, he still persistently tries to crawl away from the Seed siblings for as long as possible, just to make sure that the footage he filmed of Eden's Gate makes it onto the internet.
- Doomed Moral Victor: A downplayed example, as while he doesn't die (unless the corpse mentioned in Dropped a Bridge on Him is supposed to be him), he is recaptured by the cult, but succeeds in uploading the footage he took onto the internet.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the game, players can find a corpse hanging from a post near the Lamb of God Church in John's territory. A note near the body states that the corpse is of a person named Alex, who came to Hope County with friends to infiltrate the cult, and later was killed by John for trying to rescue people from the cult's clutches. While the corpse is not definitively confirmed to be of this character, when one considers his role in the prequel, it does seem fairly plausible.
- Porn Stache: Sports a fairly thin mustache.
- Retirony: He came to Hope County to film what would have been the last episode of his vlog before going off to travel. However, if the corpse found near the Lamb of God Church in John's territory is him, then it's safe to say he'll never realize those plans.
Hannah
Portrayed by: Alexis B. Santiago
A vlogger who infiltrates Eden's Gate along with Alex, Sara, and Mark in order to locate Mark's sister, Linny.
- Action Girl: Among the group that infiltrates Eden's Gate, she is this, having made plans to join the Marines after wrapping up her vlogging career.
- Batter Up!: Having picked up a baseball bat lying around in her cell, she uses it to knock out some guards to enable the protagonists to escape.
- Double Tap: She kills a cultist by shooting them twice while trying to escape the cult's compound.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the game, a note◊ found in the Grand View Hotel in Jacob's territory states that a woman named "H. McCalkin" was one of the people who failed the Training from Hell Jacob put her through. While it is not definitively confirmed that this person is Hannah, as her last name was never revealed, given that she did have plans to join the Marines, it does seem fairly plausible.
- Guns Akimbo: She wields two pistols in this manner to great effect.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She chooses to stay behind along with Mark to hold off Joseph and his men, allowing Alex time to get away and upload their footage of the cult's activities onto the internet.
- Paper Tiger: Despite her Action Girl status and plans to join the Marines, an organization known for putting new recruits through grueling Training from Hell, the game hints that she failed to complete the Training from Hell that Jacob put her through, and was culled by him as a result. Jacob, an army veteran, even lampshades this in a note lambasting her inability to complete his training despite wanting to join the Marines.
- However, considering what sort of person Jacob is, the Training from Hell he put her through was probably not the ordinary kind used in the Marines.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When Joseph "surrenders" to her and Mark, she delivers one, fully intending to shoot Joseph. Unfortunately for her, she failed to realize that Joseph was merely serving as a distraction so John could sneak up on her to recapture her.Hannah: You want to meet God? Now's your chance.
- Retirony: She came to Hope County to film what would have been the last episode of her vlog before going off to join the Marines. However, if one of the people who is listed as having failed Jacob's Training from Hell in a note in the Grand View Hotel in Jacob's territory is her, then it's safe to say she'll never realize those plans.
- Uncertain Doom: Captured by Jacob and possily culled in his Training from Hell, although H. McCalkin isn't specifically mentioned as having been killed, unlike others on his list of failed candidates.
Sara
Portrayed by: Erin Manker
A vlogger who infiltrates Eden's Gate along with Alex, Hannah, and Mark in order to locate Mark's sister, Linny.
- Driven to Suicide: If she is the recipient of this letter◊, then she may have ultimately killed herself.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: If players choose to "walk the path" from Joseph's statue as instructed by Faith, by following the bloody trail leading towards the statue, they will find this letter◊ from Joseph to a person named Sara. If the letter's addressee is this character, which is plausible given that it mentions her being abandoned by others, something which happened to Sara in the prequel, then it is possible that one of the corpses found at the foot of Joseph's statue is hers.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: According to Faith, she possesses sad eyes, indicating that she has experienced great loss in her life. It is precisely this trait that causes Faith to single her out among the infiltrators, figuring that she would be the least likely to resist Joseph's indoctrination.
- Hates Being Alone: She fears being left behind by her friends, but does not express it openly and it goes unnoticed by Alex and Hannah, who are preoccupied with the production of their vlog and their plans for life afterwards. However, Faith manages to notice this through her Dull Eyes of Unhappiness and takes advantage of it by having Joseph offer her membership in Eden's Gate.
- Hidden Depths: While not immediately evident from the outside, she fears being left behind by her friends, something that is imminent given that her fellow vloggers plan to end their vlog soon and move on to other endeavors. While her friends do not notice this, Faith does via her Dull Eyes of Unhappiness, which enables Joseph to manipulate her into joining the cult by promising her companionship.
- Palm on Cheek Pose: Is the recipient of a rather extended palm on cheek moment from Faith, compared to the short ones she gives Hannah and Mark, and the sheer brush-off she gives Alex. It's how she picks up on how depressed Sarah is.
Mark
Portrayed by: Jarret Worley
A resident of Hope County whose sister, Linny, joined Eden's Gate after spending time with John Seed. He enlists the help of his friends, vloggers Alex, Hannah, and Sara, to infiltrate the cult in order to discover what happened to her.
- Action Survivor: Just like Alex, he's great with guns despite no obvious training. Of course, he's from the World of Badass that is Hope County.
- Eye Scream: He shoots a Peggie right in the eye with a crossbow while he escapes.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He chooses to stay behind along with Hannah to hold off Joseph and his men, allowing Alex time to get away and upload their footage of the cult's activities onto the internet.
- I Will Find You: It is his determination to find his sister after she is indoctrinated into Eden's Gate that kickstarts the plot of the prequel.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Unlike with Alex, Hannah, and Sara, where hints are dropped in the game about characters who met unfortunate fates that could plausibly be them, no such hints are found that could be linked to Mark, leaving his ultimate fate unknown.
- However, in the game, Tammy does mention that she had a husband named Mark who was tortured to death at Jacob's chalet. It is uncertain if this character and Tammy's husband are the same person, however, as Mark makes no mention of being married in the prequel and his last name was never given. However, Mark is the only prequel protagonist that is a local of Hope County, and so are Tammy and her husband.
Far Cry: Absolution Characters
Will Boyd
Will Boyd
A Vietnam veteran and woodsman who whelps feed Eden’s Gate in the seemingly non-canon novel Absolution, but is troubled by their recent actions.
- Cult Defector: He was once a dedicated cultist but has gradually stopped attending sermons and grows disturbed by the forced conversion of nonbelievers and assaults on people at the hands of his fellow cultists. He eventually helps the captive Mary May escape from the cult and is I hiding from the Seed brothers at the end of the book.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His Back Story is that he bought a drink for a man who proceeded to get drunk and cause an accident that killed Will’s wife and daughter.
- Roguish Poacher: He regularly kills animals out of season to feed himself and the other cultists but doesn’t kill them for the sport of it and feels kinship with some animals.
The Shepherds
The Shepherds
A Hispanic father and son who raise a herd of sheep on land bordering New Eden.
- Cowboy: They raise sheep rather then cows, but otherwise fit the mold. They live on the range, protecting their herd from both predators and avaricious human neighbors.
- No Name Given: Neither is ever named.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After being endlessly harassed and shot at, they decide to leave town with a few friends, tell their story, and hope they meet someone who will do something about the Seed family cult.
