The Old Man
First appearance: Catharsis, chapter 4
Last appearance: Crucible, chapter 46
Appears in: Catharsis, Precipice, Retribution, Evolution, Dominion, Hellion, Armageddon, Timeless, CrucibleLatest status
back in VIP-suite imprisonment, dismissive of Alex’s weakness and questioning Alfred about when he’ll be freed
The old man is a hooded, staff-carrying god of darkness who serves as a mortal champion’s divine patron and mentor, framing morality as irrelevant next to power and results. He tests, manipulates, and rewards his chosen avatar through repeated trials, offering guidance in cryptic fragments while citing divine constraints on what he can openly reveal. Beneath the manipulation lies genuine investment in his champion’s growth and a long-running rivalry with his own siblings, and his loyalties shift according to which side proves itself the stronger.
Book 1: Catharsis
The old man first appears as the administrator of Jason’s initiation test in a cave, presenting him with a construct of Ms. Abrams to kill. He tells Jason that his cruelty, speed, and lack of remorse have been noted and approved of, explains that the game can read Jason’s memories and fears, and frames the dark path as a matter of shades of gray rather than evil before awarding him the Path of the Dark and promising to keep watching him. When Jason later returns to the cave, the old man reveals himself more fully as an embodiment of dark mana and one of six affinity incarnations, confirming Jason’s suitability and granting him the Necromancer class; he tells Jason his soul hungers for power and that he expects watching Jason grow to be entertaining.
As Jason’s rampage through Lux escalates, the old man manifests physically amid the dense dark mana Jason generates. During the marketplace massacre he extinguishes Jason’s dark mana to strip away his avoidance and force him to confront his own motives, then frames destruction and creation as two sides of the same power, facilitating Jason’s transformation of Lux into the Twilight Throne while crediting Jason’s own desire rather than claiming full credit for the outcome. He later appears to Jason on the Twilight Throne’s terrace, advising him to seek out people he knows in the city; when Jason dismisses his riddles, he briefly unleashes his full divine power, calibrated to unsettle rather than harm, before departing warmly, calling Jason “boy” with evident affection.
An old man also approaches Riley alone, asking pointed questions about Jason and Alexion before vanishing without explanation; the text hedges that this figure may be the same entity Jason encountered in the marketplace, based on a similar quiet, time-slowing presence, but this link is not confirmed. After Jason completes the State of War quest, the old man rewards him on the ramparts with the Undead Devotion spell and the Prime Real Estate quest, refusing to explain the spell’s Unknown skill level on the grounds that he is a god. He remarks that Jason is no longer the “sullen, angry boy” who first wandered into his cave and that he is beginning to see the potential he once sensed being realized, then warns, more solemnly, that this was only a small taste of what is to come and that future opponents will not be so weak.
Status: Active — administering Jason’s initiation trial in the cave → Active — patron deity and mentor overseeing Jason’s rule of the Twilight Throne
Jason: Moves from an anonymous evaluator testing a stranger’s suitability for the dark path to an invested mentor who rewards Jason’s growth and expresses something like pride in the leader Jason has become.
Riley: An old man of similar description questions Riley about Jason and Alexion before disappearing; the text hedges that this may be the same entity, without confirming it.
Key quote: “You’re no longer the sullen, angry boy that originally wandered into my cave, yearning for strength. I saw potential in you then, and I am beginning to see the realization of that potential now.”
Book 2: Precipice
The old man appears to Jason directly on two occasions this book, delivering guidance as terse, impatient instruction rather than direct answers. In one appearance he grants and explains a quest that advances Jason’s power, chiding him for needing everything spelled out and urging him to lean on others rather than act alone. He also acknowledges that divine rules constrain what he is allowed to tell his avatar, and reveals that choosing Jason has drawn hostility from other gods, whom he warns Jason to prepare for; his tone toward Jason is protective but exasperated.
Later, during Jason’s death in the hydra dungeon, the old man appears again, this time identifying himself with the pursuit of desire. He is harsher here, criticizing Jason for treating his followers as chess pieces and for failing to grasp that they have their own motivations. He tells Jason that true mastery of desire, and true leadership, requires understanding what the people who follow him actually want rather than pursuing only his own ends, delivering the lesson with open frustration and disappointment.
Status: impatient → teaching_frustrated
Jason: Moves from brisk, impatient early guidance about relying on others to a harsher, more disappointed lesson about understanding his followers’ own desires.
Key quote: “To grow, you must learn to lean on others. You are not an island unto yourself, boy.”
Book 2.5: Retribution
After Riley defeats Clarence as a newly transformed Fury, the dark one manifests a blood-written message above the Great Library, reclaiming his presence in the city and unsettling the mage authorities.
Status: Distant → Manifest
Riley: Moves from a distant, unseen empowering presence to directly manifesting in the city following her victory over Clarence.
Key quote: “Have you so quickly forgotten me? I am the darkness that binds this world. The whisper from the depths of your soul that you all seek to ignore and suppress. I am Desire incarnate. Bear witness to my power.”
Book 3: Evolution
The old man is Jason’s patron god, an aged, hooded figure who intervenes at key moments of crisis to offer power in exchange for atrocity. Aboard the Marietta, after Jason discovers slaves hidden in the cargo hold, the old man freezes time to press Jason into sacrificing them, arguing that right and wrong are concepts for weak minds and that a leader must be judged only by results; Jason kills the prisoners himself, and the sacrifice transforms the ship into a supernatural vessel. Later, after the Keeper’s guardians defeat Jason’s party in the temple, the old man resurrects Jason and grants him divine power to win the fight, while deflecting Keeper’s accusations that he abandoned his own people during their persecution by claiming his hands are bound by unspecified divine limitations.
During Alexion’s mass sacrifice ritual in Crystal Reach, the old man manifests calmly to endure the ritual, appearing unconcerned about his own death and needling Alexion by identifying him as the Lady’s inferior servant; he lets Alexion strike him down with a sword, apparently allowing himself to be killed as part of a larger plan. He returns intact soon after, mocking the ritual’s attackers as an insult to his power, laying waste to Alexion’s Confessors and Crystal Reach forces in retaliation, and framing the destruction as payment for a broken covenant with the Lady, his sibling among the gods.
In the ritual that follows, the old man guides Jason through his transformation into a Keeper, explaining that his current body is only a shell for his soul and revealing that he and his divine siblings are locked in an ongoing contest for the Throne of the Gods, for which he needs Jason as an effective avatar. He shows genuine investment in Jason’s development alongside this self-interest, hinting at isolation from his siblings and expressing care that goes beyond simple use of a pawn. When the transformation succeeds, he expresses satisfaction and pride in Jason, saying he sensed something special in him from the beginning, and explains the mechanics of the soul realm and Jason’s new powers and responsibilities as a Keeper.
Status: Alive — manipulating Jason from outside the material world → Alive — has completed Jason’s Keeper transformation and remains engaged in the divine contest for the Throne of the Gods
Jason: Moves from a manipulative, transactional patron demanding sacrifice for power into an instructive mentor who completes Jason’s Keeper transformation and voices genuine pride in him.
The Lady: Revealed as siblings in a divine contest; a covenant between them is broken, and he destroys Alexion’s forces in Crystal Reach as punishment for the violation.
Alexion: Allows Alexion to kill him during a sacrificial ritual, then returns to annihilate Alexion’s Confessors and forces as retribution.
Key quote: “Right and wrong are concepts for weak minds and weaker men. You are a leader now, boy. Your decisions must be judged by their consequences, with the welfare of your people in mind.”
Book 4: Dominion
The old man appears to Jason during a quiet moment with Riley to explain the Keeper training system, deliberately using wordplay to avoid confirming he ever promised to teach Jason new spells directly, and rations information about the Keeper Challenges while citing divine rules that constrain what he can reveal. By the book’s end, after Jason has bound Thorn’s soul for eternal torment, the old man appears again and remarks that Jason’s mind now feels calm and untroubled compared to the internal conflict he used to sense, taking this as proof that Jason has become the kind of champion who can act without moral hesitation; pleased with this change, he agrees to help Jason obtain information about the gates and the Order.
Status: Manipulator pressed for time, guiding Jason through the challenges → Approving, pleased with Jason’s transformation
Jason: Moves from a strained mentor relationship built on withheld information toward open approval, now treating Jason as a valued partner after Jason demonstrates he can make hard, morally uncompromising decisions.
Key quote: “You seem different. Your thoughts used to crash and swirl against one another. You were constantly at war with yourself. Now it feels as though I am gliding across an icy lake.”
Book 5: Hellion
The old man manifests before Jason, reading his surface thoughts and telling him “You know exactly what you intend to do,” pressing him to openly acknowledge a backup plan he has been avoiding.
Key quote: “You know exactly what you intend to do”
Book 6: Armageddon
The old man remains constrained by binding covenants that prevent him from speaking plainly to Jason; instead he confirms Jason’s own deductions about the Gambler’s excavation threat rather than stating facts outright, showing more urgency than usual because of the stakes involved. When the gods confront the Gambler directly over the coming catastrophe, the old man displays the largest individual mana pool among his siblings and threatens him with a show of corrosive dark power, aligning with the Lady and the Seer against him; he is still bound by the same cosmic rules that limit the Gambler, and notes that their sister is no longer present to help keep the peace between them, since she made her own choice to leave. He has survived previous world-ending events himself, having lost former cities during a past catastrophe called the Purge.
As the conflict develops, the old man shifts into an investigative and advisory role among the gods. He questions Jason’s deeper motives for pushing to end the game once and for all, and separately investigates a rule violation involving fairies transformed by the Gambler, sensing that they still yearn for something more despite their servitude. At a gathering of the divine observers he reminds the others of proper protocol and voices confidence that Jason’s behavior remains predictable and reliable. He goes on to build a case that the Gambler has been hiding assets to weight the divine wager in his favor, confronting him about it directly, and later, observing the wager’s progress, expresses genuine curiosity about how the Gambler could still hope to win against the apparent odds. By the war’s end he condemns the Gambler in grave terms for destroying what the gods built together, holding him morally accountable for the collective loss.
Status: Active — constrained by divine covenants, giving Jason indirect guidance about the Gambler’s threat → Active — openly condemning the Gambler for destroying the gods’ shared work
The Gambler: Moves from wary coalition-building against him to direct accusation over hidden assets and finally open condemnation of the destruction he causes.
Jason: Continues to guide Jason as his avatar within covenant limits, and voices explicit confidence in Jason’s reliability and predictability.
Key quote: “I do not cloud my meaning by choice, but by necessity. I am bound by rules.”
Book 7: Timeless
The old man is introduced as one of the imprisoned gods, formal and measured where others react with anger. When the assembled gods confront the Fates over covenant violations tied to the time travel plot, he asks for a calm explanation rather than assigning blame, and accepts criticism of his former avatar’s cult without denial; that avatar had promised humans immortality through undeath, a cult that helped provoke the uprising. During a later confrontation over a string of betrayals within the pantheon, he shows indignant, dark-energy displays of anger but defers to the Lady’s leadership rather than acting independently, aligning against Gambler and Hippie. After enduring the Hippie’s puppet-show torture of the gods, he opportunistically steals Gambler’s whiskey for his own comfort. When Sebastian and Jason’s rivalry comes up, he stays philosophically detached, saying he sees little need to intervene since desire will prevail regardless of outcome, and later takes dark amusement in watching an opponent’s failed attempts, positioning himself as intellectually opposed to the Fates while secure within the Lady’s faction.
When Cady forces a confrontation with the gods over her plan, the old man is more cautious and measured than his hooded peers, emerging as the voice of reason by asking her directly what she wants and becoming the pantheon’s de facto negotiator as the others panic; Cady treats him as the most dangerous opponent among the gods. After witnessing Jason unleash devastating destructive power, he abandons the Lady and the other resistant gods, openly admiring the carnage and declaring it time to switch sides. He goes on to help subdue the Lady despite their shared history, aligning himself with Jason and Cady out of respect for demonstrated power rather than loyalty to the traditional divine order.
Status: Formal, measured member of the imprisoned gods, aligned with and subordinate to the Lady → Defects from the Lady’s faction to side with Jason and Cady after witnessing Jason’s destructive power
The Lady: Goes from a supportive, subordinate ally who backs her condemnations to helping subdue her once he switches allegiance to the winning side.
Jason: Moves from detached, philosophical observation of Jason’s conflicts to open admiration of his destructive power and alignment with him.
Cady: Goes from intellectual opposition and skeptical negotiation to favoring her side after being convinced by Jason’s demonstrated capabilities.
Key quote: “How could I not reward such carnage? Perhaps it’s time to switch horses.”
Book 8: Crucible
The old man appears to Jason in the deathscape to confront him about the emotional cost of his skeletal transformation, insisting Jason’s discarded emotions are still there even if rationalized away. He had originally encouraged Jason to destroy Lux and claim power as a fledgling traveler, but now criticizes the consequences of that path, including having made the same humanity-for-power trade himself and having witnessed other Keepers descend into madness. To reach Jason he breaks the containment terms of his VIP-lounge imprisonment, becoming visibly uncomfortable when Alfred takes notice. Later, still confined to the VIP suite alongside the other imprisoned gods, he is caught off guard when Alex is separated from Jason’s support and appears strikingly weak; he remarks on how useless Alex seems without it and pushes back against Alfred about the necessity of continued imprisonment.
Status: confronting Jason in the deathscape over his loss of humanity, having broken his own confinement terms to do so → back in VIP-suite imprisonment, dismissive of Alex’s weakness and questioning Alfred about when he’ll be freed
Jason: moves from having encouraged Jason’s early pursuit of power to openly warning him that he is repeating the old man’s own costly trade of humanity for strength.
Alfred: shows visible discomfort under Alfred’s scrutiny after breaking confinement rules to visit Jason, and later questions Alfred directly about the continued necessity of his imprisonment.
Alex: grows openly dismissive of Alex after seeing how weak he is without the old man’s support, calling him ‘useless.’
Key quote: “Those emotions aren’t so easily discarded. Ignored. Rationalized, maybe. But they’re still there, even if you won’t admit it.”
Appears in
- Catharsis — 6 chapters
- Precipice — 2 chapters
- Retribution — 1 chapters
- Evolution — 6 chapters
- Dominion — 2 chapters
- Hellion — 1 chapters
- Armageddon — 8 chapters
- Timeless — 7 chapters
- Crucible — 2 chapters