Organizations in Deus Ex: Invisible War
This is a list of organizations within the world of the futuristic cyberpunk computer game Deus Ex: Invisible War.
ApostleCorp
ApostleCorp is a fictional organization in the video game, Deus Ex: Invisible War.
As described in game, ApostleCorp was founded by Paul Denton and Tracer Tong. Its purpose was to develop improved nanotechnology so that JC could work better with the Helios AI. It also had to develop a universal nanite strain acceptable to all humans.
The organization is secret and covert. It has numerous fronts including Tarsus Academy, a global chain of schools that officially provides the best education and training for the select few who are admitted. Courses include academics as well as physical, technological, weapons and psychological training. Biomodification and nanoenhancement is often offered to students. They are then hired by corporations to perform their deeds (eg: political assassination, infiltration of opposition buildings etc).
ApostleCorp has a number of bases including facilities in Seattle, Chicago, Trier, and Cairo. Tracer Tong is head of the Trier facility beneath the Black Gate, while the Cairo facility in the Cairo Arcology is headed up by Paul Denton. Leila Nasif and Stan Carnegie are in charge of the Seattle facility in the WTO enclave, and the Chicago facility which is destroyed during the games opening cinematic, respectively. A cell within Mako Ballistics is also led by Stan Carnegie.
ApostleCorp has made many breakthroughs in nanotechnology prompting action by the Illuminati, fearing universal biomodification would lead to perfect slavery, and the reincarnated Knights Templar, fearing the pollution of the human genome. The Knights Templar destroy the Chicago facility along with most of the city. The Order raids the Seattle facility freeing its trainees: Billie Adams, Klara Sparks, Leo Jankowski, as well as the player character, Alex D. The base in Cairo is attacked by the Knights Templar, capturing the cryogenically frozen body of Paul Denton. The Knights Templar also assault the Trier facility in the hope of using the teleporter there to kill JC Denton in Antarctica.
Nearly all staff are either captured or killed by these attacks. The only confirmed surviving ApostleCorp scientists and staff are the Tarsus project leaders Stan Carnegie and Dr. Leila Nassif, Paul Denton (in a coma), JC Denton (who needs special DNA mergence to revive him), and Trier Director Tracer Tong.
By the end of the game the organization is weakened, though depending on the actions of the player, most of its leaders survive. The player can even help it achieve its goal of universal biomodification and "perfect democracy", a world of everyone of equal ability connected (not assimilated) to the Helios AI.
The Illuminati
The Illuminati of Deus Ex is based on the original secret organization, The Bavarian Illuminati, founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1792.
Within the back story of the series, the Illuminati have controlled the world "behind the scenes" for centuries, carefully managing the world's economies and governments in their quest for complete global control. By the time the original Deus Ex takes place, however, they have been usurped from their position of power by ex-protégé Bob Page and his splinter group "Majestic 12".
After the downfall of Majestic 12 at the end of the first game, the Illuminati return to power, though the worldwide collapse in the game practically cripples all organizations around the world. In Deus Ex: Invisible War, the second game in the series, the world is beginning to reform itself after what is referred to as the Collapse. The Illuminati are back controlling much of the world as they always have, behind the scenes. After the death or retirement of Illuminati leader Morgan Everett at some point after the first Deus Ex game, Nicolette Duclare, daughter of Beth Duclare and another member of the Illuminati, is placed in joint charge of the Illuminati with her lover Chad Dumier, the former leader of rebel group Silhouette (who were at war with MJ-12).
The Illuminati have always secretly run the world "behind the scenes," usually through manipulation of other, more prominent organizations. The fanatical, idealistic worldwide religious group, "The Order", is led by "Her Holiness" (in reality Nicolette Duclare), while the capitalist WTO (World Trade Organisation) is controlled by Chad Dumier. While seemingly opposing each other, they are secretly working together (without the knowledge of even their own seconds-in-command for their organizations (Lin-May Chen for The Order and Donna Morgan for the WTO) to control both a world economic system, as well as a world religion. Also, the Illuminati owns the two coffee shop chains Pequod's and QueeQueg's (these two chains are violently competitive, and their connections to the same organization are cleverly masked by their benefactor).
When the player uncovers the truth about Dumier and DuClare in Trier, Germany, he or she first meets an Illuminati Elite Commando. Until then, the WTO and Order had been the military enforcement for the Illuminati. Their soldiers are highly skilled combatants, who are analogous to the MIB agents of the first game. Elite Commandos are tougher than normal soldiers but are augmented with permanent cloaking fields raising their combat strength and a self-destruct function causing them break down into an extremely poisonous gas which they are immune to.
If the player sides with the Illuminati at the end of Deus Ex: Invisible War, the resulting ending is called "The Age of Light". Siding with them results in the Helios core and Aquinas Hub being placed in the orbital space station Ophelia, from where the Illuminati monitor and control all communication and financial transactions in the world, thus bringing about a new era of enlightened control.
Knights Templar
In Deus Ex, The Knights Templar are the descendants of the medieval order of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. Prior to the start of the game, the organization acted as bankers to the Illuminati, backed up by their large gold supplies. They were headed by Stanton Dowd. Based in Paris, the Templars were (meaning that, by proxy, the Illuminati were) the controlling influence behind most of the world's financial institutions, and worked to influence the global economy on behalf of the Illuminati. After the rise of Majestic 12, the Templars were destroyed by a combined Interpol/UNATCO force headed by Joseph Manderley. This operation marked the end of the 'traditional' incarnation of the order.
The Knights Templar of Deus Ex: Invisible War, were established by Luminon Saman of the Order church, a worldwide religion controlled by the Illuminati, who had come to believe that the Order had deviated from the principles on which it was supposedly founded. They believe themselves to be descendants of the original Knights Templar and have a zealous belief in their religion and their "Grand Master" Saman.
Initially working in secret, Saman gathered followers from the branch of the Order Church of which he was head in Trier, Germany, before spreading the organization worldwide. Though the organisation came out of hiding, its connection to the Order Church was hidden for some time. Believing themselves to be the modern incarnation of the original Knights Templar, they are opposed to bio-modification and nanotechnology in all forms, believing it to be a 'plague' and a violation of the "purity" of humanity. Mechanical augmentation does not appear in Deus Ex: Invisible War, thus the group does not address it. The group is notorious for its religious zealotry and direct action policy on bio-modified individuals; these individuals are given the chance to convert, and repent for their "pollution" by using it to aid the Templars' cause, or risk being targeted for assassination. The Templars do not attempt to convert the Omar, whom they do not consider human.
At the beginning of Deus Ex: Invisible War, it seems the new Templar have managed to gain access to the massive gold reserves of the original Templars, as they have vast financial resources and are even attempting to bankroll an army "larger than all other armies combined." With such a powerful force, the danger they pose to the ruling Illuminati has been established. In order to destroy a secret research lab, Saman orders the use of a powerful weapon called a 'nanite detonator' in a devastating attack that reduces the city of Chicago to dust. This terrorist act was the first in a series of strikes against ApostleCorp, the organization founded by Tracer Tong and Paul Denton, major supporting characters from the first game, to further develop bio-modification technology. Saman recognised the threat to his ideals posed by the dream of 'universal bio-modification' that ApostleCorp sought to accomplish and decided to destroy this ambition quickly.
However, these actions thrust the Templars into the spotlight and brought about the attention of the Illuminati leaders, who began working to eliminate the Templar threat.
Knowing that their refusal to biomodify their troops puts them at a serious disadvantage against biomodified enemies, Templar scientists have developed a special Powered Assault Armor suit (financed using their gold reserves), making them as tough as a biomodified human. The Templars also commissioned the development of a powerful new weapon, the Mag Rail, but this research was intercepted by the WTO/Illuminati. The Templars have therefore been forced to equip the bulk of their new heavy troops with standard rocket launchers. Ironically, the Mag Rail is the most effective means of combating the Templar's new Power Armor, and most of the Illuminati's troops carry one.
Their soldiers are referred to as Paladins. Armoured Paladins are much larger than other combatants making them obvious targets. Like the Omar, their armour makes them invulnerable to fire, radiation and toxins as well as sub-zero temperatures; but makes them vulnerable to EMP attacks. The principle differences between the varieties of Paladins are their vulnerability to bullets and physical attacks, and whether they violently explode upon death.
Despite becoming the main antagonists about halfway through the game, the Templars are one of the four groups the player can join at the game's finale, creating "The Templar Flood", in which the Templars unleash a nanite plague that eliminates biomodifications without harming the host. This drastically weakens the Illuminati (who are dependent upon biomodified troops for their military power), allowing the Templars to eventually seize control of the planet.
The Omar
As described within Invisible War, the Omar are a global society of radically biomodified cyborg traders that flourished after The Collapse, an event that precipitated a global meltdown. They apparently originated in Russian science cities when a group of Russian scientists submitted themselves to radical biomodification in an attempt to survive the massive Russian famines following the Collapse. In the video game Deus Ex, in-game emails and documents indicate that a large amount of Russian nanotechnology research took place at a facility in the Russian city of Sverdlovsk. It is possible that the Omar originated from that facility and then spread to others. In the twenty years since the Collapse, the Omar have spread around the globe, their extensive augmentation earning them the ire of the Knights Templar, an organization that hates and detests human enhancement, and fear from others.
The Omar are not fully individuals, rather, each Omar is part of a merged collective consciousness, achieved through the replacement of their frontal lobes with a wireless cortical interface. Thus, if something happens to an Omar, then all Omar will know about it and react accordingly. The Omar expand their ranks through covert recruitment of humans, both biomodified and not; it is unclear how voluntary this recruitment normally is. In the game, some characters state that homeless people are the primary targets of this recruitment, but the validity of this is uncertain.
To finance themselves, the Omar quickly found a niche dealing in biomodifications, weapon modifications, and information on the black market all over the world. They are rapidly dominating the field, often by aggressively squeezing out their competition whenever they move into a new area, either through assassination or assimilation. They often use human agents as fronts and intermediaries while conducting their business for their personal safety. However, the Omar also sell their wares directly, normally outside of policed areas. They are almost always accompanied by one or two armed Omar, called Protectors, who act as bodyguards for the Traders.
Physiology and philosophy
All of the Omar wear dark blue exoskeleton suits with gas mask-like respiratory systems. Their internal appearance (if any) is not known. The Omar exoskeleton suits allow them to survive comfortably at a range of extreme temperatures, from sub-zero arctic climates to harsh desert heat. They are also fire-proof and resistant to most forms of radiation and poisons. However, their collective consciousness makes them susceptible to strong Electromagnetic pulses, which disrupt their connection rendering them unconscious and comatose.
The Omar are constantly in search of new technologies to improve their existing cybernetic modifications. Though many individuals outside the group are augmented, the Omar are the only post-Collapse group to openly espouse "Posthumanism;" their ultimate goal is to become capable of surviving in any environment, no matter how harsh, so that they may eventually inherit the Earth through natural selection. Like the Illuminati, a secret society which wishes to regulate and control nanotechnology on a global scale, and the Knights Templar, who wish that nanotechnology be destroyed completely, the Omar are opposed to ApostleCorp head, and Deus Ex protagonist, JC Denton's proposed "Great Advance", which would biomodify all of humanity, rendering the Omar collective obsolete; however, they lack the resources to mount an effective opposition to Denton and ApostleCorp.
The Omar collective are utilitarian realists - to them, the Knights Templar are hazardously puerile neo-luddites, the Illuminati's New World Order theories of control are an outmoded and backward waste of resources, and the views of ApostleCorp regarding "perfect democracy" are an archaic oxymoron when technology exists allowing all such delimited ideologies to be disposed of. If the player chooses to side with the Omar, they instruct him to kill the Dentons (J.C. and Paul), the Illuminati leadership (Nicolette and Chad), and Grand Master Saman of the Knights Templar. The world does not need any new delusions of messianic grandeur; humanity has proven itself often enough to be undeserving salvation from its long belated abolition, and the Omar are dispassionate critics. The closing cinematic shows the Earth as a barren chunk of rock after two hundred years of war, and an Omar walking over the bodies of the dead, towards new frontiers for the new species.
The Omar are likely inspired by a concept introduced by science fiction author Bruce Sterling in a short story called Cicada Queen, where he introduces the idea of cyborgs, called "Lobsters", which are internally human and externally modified instead of the other way around. The Russian word for lobster is Омар (pronounced as "omar"), and so the name of the Omar references the Lobsters of Cicada Queen.
Also it seems likely that the Omar also represent the Nietzschean ideal of the ubermensch.
The Order
The Order is a fictional transdenominational religious group set in the computer and video game, Deus Ex: Invisible War.
As described within Invisible War, The Order was formed by its current leader, a secretive personality known only to the church's members as "Her Holiness", after the Collapse brought on by JC Denton at the end of the first Deus Ex. The Order appealed to those who had lost friends and faith during the Collapse and is dedicated to the pursuit of a concept called "natural balance". It is against nanotechnology and genetic augmentation. It is also apparently against what it sees as the material greed and commercialism of its main "rival" within the game, the WTO.
Although the organization is ostensibly peaceful, it has mounted sometimes violent protests against those who it has seen as polluting the environment, the prime example of this within the game being the Panzerverks factory in Trier, Germany. It also mentioned as having helped start a riot in Lower Seattle, against Upper Seattle becoming a WTO enclave a year before the events of Deus Ex: Invisible War. It, in its investigation of ApostleCorp, led a raid against Tarsus/ApostleCorp facility in Seattle; freeing the Trainees - including the player character, Alex D.
The organization's rank and file members are known as "Seekers". All Seekers are members of a smaller group known as a "Shard", which is in turn led by a "Luminon". The next hierarchical level up are called "Augurs", led by High Augur Lin-May Chen. Lin-May Chen is seated at the right hand of Her Holiness.
However, as revealed later in the game, the Order is in fact a branch of The Illuminati. Her Holiness is Nicolette DuClare, daughter of the French Illuminatus Beth DuClare, and lover of the current WTO leader, Chad Dumier. It was part of the Illuminati's plan after the Collapse to create a centralized government by first consolidating wealth through the WTO and religion through the Order serparately, before finally joining the two apparently opposing factions together within a single world government. This plan, however, is not known to the members of the organisation beyond DuClare - within the game, it is possible for the player to break the spirit of Lin-May Chen by informing her of the truth, showing that even the Order's second-in-command was unaware of its true nature.
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization or WTO is a fictional world-spanning trade and governmental organization within the world of the video game Deus Ex: Invisible War.
The WTO is one of the most prominent organizations working to rebuild civilization following the Great Collapse brought on by the actions of JC Denton at the end of the first Deus Ex. Led by Chad Dumier, the former leader of the French revolutionary group Silhouette from the first game, the WTO is primarily focused on political and economic recovery in North America, Europe and Asia and works in tandem with local governments to establish urban growth and stability while laying the foundations for a new global information network.
The WTO provides the technology to post-collapse city-states that agree to submit to the laws of the WTO charter and live under a certain level of surveillance. WTO funded habitats - known as enclaves - positioned in most major cities allow the WTO to exert its influence over trade and international travel. However this creates a huge divide between the rich and the poor, with the rich residing in the cosy protection of the enclaves while many live like feudal peasants in the streets of the post-Collapse world.
The organisation of the WTO seems to be based on the real world European Union. It regulates trade between enclaves through tariffs, import/export restrictions and other methods. The uniforms of WTO troops have a European flavor, and Chad Dumier states that the WTO have been accused of over-engineering the economy, an accusation levied against the EU. In addition, the WTO's Chad Dumier and Chief Morgan are both European (although Morgan comes from Eurosceptic Britain). The WTO also places an emphasis on culture, as Seattle has a Minister of Culture (although this could be the case in Seattle exclusively - he is revealed to be working in spite of the WTO in his dealings).
Early on in the game, the goals of the WTO appear to be the opposite of those held by the The Order , though it is revealed later in the game that both the WTO and the Order are branches of the same group, known as the Illuminati.
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