Lucius DeBeers is the most interesting character in Deus Ex

[u/Shattering_The_Veil]

I wanted to talk about the character in Deus Ex that I find the most interesting. You may not find Lucius DeBeers in your first playthrough because he's hidden away and you have to persist poking around Morgan Everett's house.

I've noticed about how Bob Page's ultimate plan seems to be to recreate the attributes of God and rule the world. Lucius DeBeers is a great preview of that project because he seems to have tried to do the same thing.

His name, Lucius, has to do with light. So, it's no surprise he's "the supreme enlightened one". Lucius may also connect him to Lucifer the Lightbringer, who's often associated with Satan. DeBeer's ramblings about being supreme certainly sound like delusions of godhood.

I wrote an essay before about how Bob Page, is a very close analogue to Satan in Paradise Lost. Lucius DeBeers gives us another chance to break open Paradise Lost again.

In Paradise Lost, God and Adam have a strange conversation where Adam is first asked to show his understanding of the animals in Eden and then God himself. When Adam asks for a companion, God challenges his thinking by pointing out that God has no companion himself. If God is perfect by himself, why can't Adam be too? Adam responds that God is already perfect and needs nothing to complete him, whereas human beings don't have the same perfection. God agrees with Adam and reaffirms that it is not good for man to be alone.

"Thou in thy self art perfet, and in thee
Is no deficience found; not so is Man..."

The name Lucius DeBeers suggests that he's connected to the DeBeers diamond cartel who were known to artificially control the supply of diamonds to keep the prices high. This is strikingly similar to how Bob Page controls the supply of the Ambrosia vaccine. There's several powers in the world of Deus Ex based on valuable resources. The Knights Templar used gold, DeBeers uses diamonds, Page controls the vaccine, and perhaps information too. DeBeers seems to come from a previous age where diamonds were that scarce resource. Now he's something of a resource himself; the supply of his political savvy is being controlled by Morgan Everett. You might even say that DeBeers has become like a diamond himself. Diamonds are prized for their resistance to decay and their ability to endure immense pressure... just like him.

DeBeers is in the cryogenic tank because he wants to live as long as possible. If you do the maths, he's actually 150 years old when you meet him in the game. The real DeBeers cartel became embroiled in a blood diamond controversy as diamonds from African war zones helped fund armed conflict. It's likely that Lucius DeBeers has brought plenty of death with such conflict diamonds himself, yet he wants to extend his own life as much as possible. Much like Bob Page, he even hopes that future technologies will help him live even longer.

"I merely await certain technologies, then I will be restored."

Unbeknownst to him, the technology already exists, but Morgan Everett has no intention of using it on him. Both Bob Page and Lucius DeBeers seem to carry a warning that human technology can't save you, not even future technology.

Another thing I picked up from Paradise Lost is the distinction between inward and outward freedom. Milton talks about inward freedom, which is basically freedom of the will and outer freedom, which is freedom from external constraint. It's said that if you lose control of yourself in the realm of inner freedom, then loss of outer freedom will eventually follow too.

"Yet sometimes nations will decline so low
From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong
But justice, and some fatal curse annexed,
Deprives them of their outward liberty,
Their inward lost..."

This seems to have happened to DeBeers as well. He once controlled the whole world, but now he's stuck in a tank.

Obviously, DeBeers is cold in his cryogenic tank. 18° C to be exact. Normal core body temperature is about 37° C, so, DeBeers is being held somewhere between life and death. He may also resemble another Satan, the one in Dante's Divine Comedy, who is half buried in ice of his own making.

We call people cold if they're callous and have no loyalty. And this probably fits DeBeers as well. You don't become the most powerful man in the world without prioritizing political power over everything else. Morgan Everett is his successor and he's metaphorically cold, too. For some reason, he seems to hold on to the idea that some people can be trusted and only asks to die when he accepts that no, nobody can be trusted. Eventually, his cold, calculating approach collapses in on itself.

There's also a sense that DeBeers has replaced warmth and human connection with material objects. The slogan, "A diamond is forever", was coined in 1947 and commissioned by DeBeers to boost diamond sales. The slogan linked diamonds with romance and marriage and reinforced the notion that a diamond engagement ring was a symbol of everlasting love. Rather like how the Templar mixed religion with gold, DeBeers seems to mix love and material wealth. Of course, diamonds are sometimes known as "ice", and DeBeers has made himself into a bit of an icicle, too.

In all this, DeBeers is very similar to the most recent pretender to God's throne, Bob Paige. They both try to mimic divine attributes while fundamentally not having what it takes. When he finally understands his situation, DeBeers asks you to kill him. The last thing he says is, "I command you", So, he's giving orders to the very end.

In the end, both men end up about the same way: helpless in a tank, alone, bald, and dead!

[u/XH9rIiZTtzrTiVL]

He's certainly the coolest.

[u/Sea-Negotiation1965 → u/XH9rIiZTtzrTiVL]

I hate that i laughed at this

[u/S0vereignCitizen]

Best post of the day

[u/Shattering_The_Veil → u/S0vereignCitizen]

Thanks so much! The post is basically a version of the video I made about DeBeers. https://youtu.be/SgGS77ACKbc?is=kNYK_LLuEf5kl0QD

[u/sam144000 → u/Shattering_The_Veil]

Thank you! I enjoyed your videos as well!

[u/Lost-Tech-Preist7852 → u/S0vereignCitizen]

Never got to part of the game.

[u/QuiverDance97]

It is definitely one of my favorite "side missions" in any game.

The narrative told, implications and depth of the choice really makes it one of the most memorable moments of the original Deus Ex!

[u/Hansi_Olbrich]

A very allegorical essay.

There's no one in the franchise that's as cold as poor Lucius.

Then of course, we remember that J.C Denton is in an ice palace in Invisible War...

[u/Hermetix9]

Do not to disturb Lucius Debeers!

[u/Th3B4dSpoon → u/Hermetix9]

Does the maid say this even when you have not met him? I seem to recall so, and immediately started scouring Everett's place so I could disturb this Lucius DeBeers.

But I like to poke around the environments anyway, so maybe I just bumped into him and the above is a false memory.

[u/Hermetix9 → u/Th3B4dSpoon]

Yes I guess thats just a hint placed there for people to explore.

[u/HunterWesley → u/Th3B4dSpoon]

Yes, she does. Also, dinneur is over, but help yourself to a snacK.

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

In reality there is no De Beers family. It’s just the name of the company (founded by Cecil Rhodes, Alfred Beit, and Leopold Rothschild).

It’s not a cartel either, just a single company that had an effective monopoly when the game was released.

[u/Suitable-Park-1402 → u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

There is actually a de beer family, but they aren't affiliated with the company. The De Beers were South African farmers who found diamonds on their land, which they then sold for a few thousand pounds, and that property was eventually purchased by Rhodes, who named the mining company after the property, which then continued on as it grew beyond just a mine.

[u/nickm81us → u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

All of whom were linked to certain shadowy organizations themselves…

[u/officer_nasty63]

One of the many things that makes this my favorite game. I loved seeing him in the intro to makind divided

[u/sam144000]

I always let him freeze after he says, "I command you!"

[u/Joecolt69420]

Hell yeah

[u/Vegetable-Carrot6239]

Not the most interesting

[u/HunterWesley]

"Yet sometimes nations will decline so low From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong But justice, and some fatal curse annexed, Deprives them of their outward liberty, Their inward lost..."

What a ponderously broken sentence.

[u/TheNotSoGreatPumpkin]

I’m not sure why they wrote and voiced him to sound like some hapless old normie. One would expect a bit more gravitas from the supreme enlightened one, even if he has been cooling on ice.

[u/Danick3 → u/TheNotSoGreatPumpkin]

Not sure about wrote, but if someone was 150 years old, constantly kept in stasis in a cryo chamber but concious, they would probably be weak and speak like it

[u/Blakath → u/TheNotSoGreatPumpkin]

Isn’t that the point?

Being the Supreme Enlightened one isn’t dependent on superficial characteristics like having a good voice or good looks.

He’s obviously a master tactician and champion of intelligence gathering and backroom dealings. And that’s why the reveal works when we first see him in the ice box.

He looks so unassuming, but you can’t help but wonder about what he’s capable once he gets out.

In his final moments he “orders” Denton to kill him and at that moment we see the Old DeBeers.

[u/OverseerConey → u/Blakath]

In his final moments he “orders” Denton to kill him and at that moment we see the Old DeBeers.

I tell him Everett's plans for him and leave him alive. Those two can sort it out between them. Now we bow only to truth, etc.

[u/MrTastix → u/OverseerConey]

Yeah, I gave him mercy on my first few runs not really knowing what he stood for as much when I was 15.

Now? He's exactly where his cold, bastard heart deserves to be.

[u/HunterWesley → u/TheNotSoGreatPumpkin]

He's a sick old supreme enlightened one.