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| “ | I know thou art not a believer, Garrett. Yet thou art well aware that half of all thou seest is through Mechanist machinery: Thy metal eye. I gave the eye to thee in the hopes that thou wouldst be an ally, but 'twas not to be. You have eluded me in the past, Garrett, but no one, not even thee, will escape this night. | „ |
| ~ Karras voicing his contempt for Garrett, hoping he would be an ally for his cause. |
Karras is the main antagonist of Thief II: The Metal Age. The head of the Mechanist Order, Karras held a disdain towards all organic life, viewing them as inherently flawed, and sought to destroy all organic life and replace them with machines.
He was voiced by Stephen Russell, who also voiced Garrett.
Biography[]
Karras was originally a member of the Hammerites. However, his desire for the destruction of all organic life led to a schism in the group, with him establishing a new faction from several former members called the Mechanists. His end goal was to annihilate all organic life in the City. To do so, he had vagrants, prostitutes, street people and others rounded up by the City Watch brainwashed into minions for the Mechanists called Masked Servants, who were then offered to the nobility as gifts. The Masked Servants had rust gas, a deadly gas that fed on organic matter, killing it and converting it into an inert red powder that resembles rust. Although the gas dissipated under normal atmospheric conditions, when exposed to organic matter, the gas would expand before dissipating unless exposed to more organic matter. This would cause a chain reaction that would kill all life in the City. He would use this method to kill all organic life in the City and create a "Builder's Paradise" in adoration of his god.
As Karras was nearing enacting his plan (during the infiltration, Garrett finds out that Karras forcibly converted the remaining Mechanists at Soulforge when he ran out of available subjects), Garrett and Viktoria infiltrated Soulforge Cathedral and turned the Masked Servants against him by tampering the beacons that controlled them. To accelerate the gas's reaction rate, Viktoria spread vines across the Cathedral's vents, going into the sealed factory where Karras was at, him expecting to survive the extermination by gas. However, by the time Karras realizes what was about to happen, he is killed by the gas that he was going to spread onto the City.
Trivia[]
Karras's mannerisms and broadcasts served as inspiration for Wallace Breen in Half-Life 2, according to writer Marc Laidlaw.[1]
References[]
- ↑ “[Karras] provides an incredible radio show while you’re sneaking around doing thievish things, I was appalled at myself when I went back years later and listened to those Karras broadcasts, and realised how much I lifted from Thief.” -Marc Laidlaw, 1/3/2023, "The narrative had to be baked into the corridors": Marc Laidlaw on writing Half-Life, Rock Paper Shotgun. (accessed 2024-11-17)