Daemon/Characters

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Nothing will be flagged in this character sheet, so do expect major spoilers if you continue.

This page can use a whole lot of love.

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Matthew Sobol

Genius founder of Cyberstorm Games and the creator of the Daemon. His death from cancer is what kicks off the entire plot when his Daemon programs read his obituary and start causing chaos. Far from the Complete Monster he appears to be at the beginning, you learn that he is truly a Well-Intentioned Extremist who did what he felt he had to do because Utopia Justifies the Means. It worked.

• Alas, Poor Villain
• Evil Genius
• The Extremist Was Right
• I Did What I Had to Do
• My Death Is Only the Beginning
• Necessarily Evil
• Utopia Justifies the Means

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Pete Sebek

The detective initially put on the Daemon case. The Daemon seems to take specific delight in torturing him and sets him up to take the fall for the massacre at Sobol's mansion. He is demonized (no pun intended) as a Complete Monster by the media and executed for his alleged crimes. However, his story does not end there...

• Death by Origin Story
• Defective Detective
• Unwitting Pawn

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Roy "Tripwire" Merritt -- The Burning Man.

Merritt was part of the elite Hostage Rescue Team tasked with infiltrating Sobol's mansion at the beginning of the story. The rest of his team was killed by the various boobytraps before they were even able to get in the front door. Despite being set on fire by a gasoline-powered sprinkler system, he managed to breach the back door and make his way far enough into the mansion to trigger the self-destruct mechanism. Even with all this, he survives, albeit significantly scarred from the experience. His epic run is recorded by mansion security cameras and passed around the darknet as inspiration. They christen him "The Burning Man" as a mark of honor and he becomes a folk hero and legend.

• Determinator
• Hero Antagonist
• Tear Jerker: His last action after The Major shoots him in the back and before having his brains blown out by The Major is to look at the two pictures of his daughters he carries with him all the time. Try to read that scene with dry eyes. Even Gragg is horrified.
• Too Cool to Live
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Gragg thinks this of him in Freedom™.

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Brian Gragg/Loki

Gragg is first introduced setting up a date rape of a teenaged girl at a rave and framing one of his associates to take the fall. As he gains power in the Daemon's network, he gets worse. The Daemon picks him because it has need of a Complete Monster for some of its less savory plans.

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Complete Monster or Heroic Sociopath?
• Badass Biker
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Merritt is assassinated in front of him, Gragg makes his singular mission to find and destroy the person responsible. This is probably his only saving grace.
• Jerkass
• Jerkass Woobie: In the end, he is stripped of his power, has had his eyes and tongue cut out and his fingertips chopped off and failed to stop The Major and collapses into a crying mess at the realization of his failure. The rest of the darknet recognize that he was used by the Daemon probably more than anyone else and treat him with sympathy instead of contempt.
• Lonely at the Top: He recognises in Freedom^TM that despite his top Darknet level he has no friends.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When Loki finally tracks down The Major, he calls in every asset he has to eliminate anything and anyone standing in his way, civilian or otherwise.
• Token Evil Teammate: He recognises that he has become this as the Darknet's growth to encompass so many normal people has removed the need for sociopathic hatchetmen like himself.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential
• Worthy Opponent: Gragg sees Merritt as such, arguably rightfully so as Merritt is the only one who ever even gets close to taking him out. Merritt does not return the sentiments.

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The Major

A mysterious member of a Private Military Contractor hired to be part of the Daemon Task Force. His motives are unclear from the beginning and only get worse from there.

• Complete Monster: The Major recalls some of the horrifying things he's done in his career with fondness.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: His mission isn't to stop the Daemon, but to take advantage of the worldwide chaos to make a quick fortune.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He doesn't bother telling anyone his real name. We never find out even by the end.
• Jerkass
• Majorly Awesome: He may be pure Evil but he does make a good account of himself. Subversion: He's actually ascended past the rank but keeps it as a moniker.

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Jon Ross

Computer consultant that the Daemon attempts to frame for some of its initial actions. While he initially appears to be your every day computer security consultant, it quickly becomes clear that he has a much more complicated history than he is letting on.

• I Have Many Names: Was an identity thief. His real name is Ivan Borovich.

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Natalie Phillips

Cryptography consultant from the NSA that is assigned to the Daemon Task Force. He and The Major butt heads considerably because of their vastly different outlooks on how to handle the situation. She becomes Jon Ross' love interest.

• Butt Monkey: Whenever anything bad happens to the DTF, she seems to be in the center of it, although it's never because of anything she does.