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"Hello, Isaac. I know you're out there... crawling around. You probably think I'm an overzealous crusader, that I'm... mindlessly following the whim of an angry god. It's an easy conclusion to draw and I don't fault you for it, but... you may be surprised to know that I'm a man of science. A man of fact and reason, cause and effect. And soon, you'll understand that I'm right... about everything."
—Danik contacts Isaac Clarke to explain his views on the Markers.

Jacob Arthur Danik was a high ranking member of the Church of Unitology[1] and the leader of the militant Unitologist organization known as the Circle, active prior to and during the rediscovery of Tau Volantis in 2514.

Danik and his followers launched several attacks on EarthGov's Marker test sites with the intention of freeing the Markers from government control. They later pursued Isaac Clarke and his allies to Tau Volantis with the intent of discovering the origins of the Markers and initiating humanity's ascension.

History[]

"When the Black Marker was first discovered on Earth so long ago, the government at the time hid all evidence of it from us. When our prophet Michael Altman spoke out against them, he was silenced. Now EarthGov continues that legacy. They tamper with the Markers – making blasphemous copies as part of their secret research programs. They have taken our sacred relic and turned it into a disease. But nature has ways of correcting itself. By liberating the Markers we can end this cycle of death and begin the cycle of rebirth. Join me as we take back our future - the future the Marker promises to us all."
—Jacob Arthur Danik[2]
Danik's_speech

Danik's speech

Danik was an active proponent in the Unitologist movement to overthrow the Earth Government Colonial Alliance, working alongside his brethren to compromise and attack their strongholds. Using the vast fortunes accumulated by the Church, Danik and his "Circle" sect built a sizable fighting force[3] and began a "crusade" to liberate humanity by "freeing" the Red Markers stationed on various colony worlds from the test labs set up by EarthGov.[2]

Danik believed that the creation of Marker replicas based on the original Black Marker was an intrinsic aspect of the human race, but that they needed to do so with respect and care for the Markers and the "natural evolution of the Universe". As a result, he saw EarthGov's test labs and experiments on their own captive Marker copies as perversions of nature, and sought to free the Red Markers in an effort to undo the damage he believed the government had done. In the face of his followers' uncertainty and hesitation when experiencing the horrors of the Necromorphs, Danik explained that the creatures were merely the consequences of EarthGov's disrespectful tampering with the Markers and remained steadfast in the belief that their mission was the only way to bring about the Markers' true plan.[4]

War on EarthGov[]

"Many of the faithful have come to me, their beliefs shaken by the horrors they've seen at the liberated Marker test sites. 'How can we continue to believe in the Markers when they bring so much pain and suffering', they ask. And who is it that made these aberrations - these copies, I ask them. It is man. Markers are as much a part of nature as were trees and blue sky and pristine oceans, yet we destroyed those too. But nature has a way of righting itself if we are respectful. It is only by undoing the work of man that the Marker's true plan can blossom."
—Jacob Arthur Danik[4]
Jacobdanik

Danik's outfit during his "crusade" against EarthGov.

Danik staged an attack on the planet Uxor in a move to destroy the Marker Shroud 4 test site. His operatives went unseen by the likes of John Carver or the EarthGov units on the planet. Using Danik's user ID, they used the USG Perseus to set up a long-sight laser marker to guide a cruiser's missiles to the exact location of the Marker site.[5][6]

The missile destroyed the Marker's shroud and released an EMP that knocked out the power in the area. After Residential was demolished by a falling ship, Danik and his men entered the Science Block in Sector 6 in search of the Sovereign Colonies Marker research discovered by Damara Carver. They captured John Carver who stumbled onto them accidentally. Danik's men interrogated him for information. Danik, set on killing Carver, learned that he was married to the woman that he was searching for.

Though John Carver escaped, Danik was able to reach Damara and her son Dylan first and killed them. Afterward, he listened in on Carver's RIG communication with Ellie Langford. Danik set up a trap for him near the cargo dock. Carver used Ellie as bait and sprung Danik's trap, allowing them to escape on the USM Eudora. Despite the group's efforts to hide their trail, Danik followed them to Keyhole Station and ordered an attack on the Eudora. Danik's efforts to gain the information and coordinates for Tau Volantis were foiled when Robert Norton destroyed the ShockRing that Ellie had used to reach the planet. His ship was heavily damaged by the combined bombardment from Keyhole Station and the Eudora and seemingly drifted through space.

At an unspecified time, after crash landing on Tau Volantis, Norton made a deal with Danik. Excluding Isaac Clarke, in exchange for the safety of the rest of the crew, Danik would give him a ship and allow them to leave Tau Volantis unharmed.[7] Norton presumably gave Danik the coordinates to the planet before locating Clarke on Luna.

Pursuing Isaac Clarke[]

"Fact, Isaac: As you can personally attest, man is naturally compelled to create Red Markers, duplicates made in the image of the original. They are as much a part of us as the planet that birthed us, perhaps even more so. We must all act our part in the natural evolution of the Universe, Isaac - something you seem rather reluctant to accept."
—Jacob Arthur Danik
DS3-Open

Danik "frees" the Luna Marker from EarthGov control.

Danik spread an automated speech via a airship over the top of Luna's New Horizons Lunar Colony, preaching about how the end of mankind had come and the time of humanity's glorious rebirth was imminent. During this speech, he was preparing to launch an assault on the colony in the hopes of finding Clarke and killing him. The primary purpose of the attack was to unite the Unitologists against EarthGov as he believed that their tampering with the Markers was heresy.

During the genocidal attack on the sector, Danik first met Clarke as he was attempting to reach Norton's ship, the Eudora. He forced Clarke to watch as his men destroyed the shroud of a Marker test facility in the heart of the city. He ignored Clarke's warnings about the deaths that would follow the shroud's removal. Danik reassured him that death was just the beginning and the destruction of the human race was necessary: Clarke could not be allowed to interfere with Convergence. Before Danik could kill him, Clarke deflected his weapon and fell into a garbage dump full of EarthGov corpses. During the Necromorph outbreak spreading on the planet, Danik's attempts to cut Clarke off from the Eudora were foiled by the Eudora crew's combined efforts.

DS3-Danik1

Danik and his men capture Isaac, Carver and Norton.

Later on, Danik and his followers reached Tau Volantis to the bafflement of Clarke's group. During Isaac and the crew's experimentation with the Nexus, Isaac caught Norton secretly communicating with Danik, but when he was questioned, Norton said that it was nothing important. After Jennifer Santos gained the information necessary for the group to locate the Machine that worked in conjunction with the Codex, Danik apprehended Clarke, Norton and Carver. He reneged on his deal with Norton and revealed his intention to kill them all. They fought back and were able to chase Danik off during a firefight with his men.

Danik and his men appeared some time later, combing the research labs to find Clarke, Ellie and Carver. Instead of actively searching for them, Danik found a communications station where he broadcasted Unitologist propaganda in an attempt to wear down Clarke's morale. He later managed to corner them after the assembly of the alien remains in the Rosetta Facility, where Clarke unknowingly revealed the true purpose of the Alien Machine to Danik: the Moon above the planet was a massive Necromorph and the Machine was keeping the creature from completing Convergence, which had started with the alien race two million years prior.

Danik, convinced that the Moon was the divine embodiment of the Markers' will, decided that the Machine must be deactivated in order to free it and allow it to become whole. Before Danik's men could kill Clarke and the others, however, Clarke activated the room's decontamination protocol. Among the confusion, Danik escaped with the Codex and a few of his men. He sealed the chamber and assumed that Clarke and the others would die in the fumes.

As Danik made his way to the Machine, his men informed him that Clarke and Carver had survived and were hot on his trail. He gathered his remaining troops to slow them down while he descended into the underground alien city where the Machine resided. By the time he reached the bottom of the ventilation system, he found most of his ground forces dead. Aggravated, Danik demanded that more drop ships should be called in at once.

As Clarke and Carver pursued Danik through the caverns of the underground city, Clarke tried to convince Danik about the true nature of the Moon, but Danik disregarded Clarke's warning as fear of the unknown. Clarke and Carver eventually caught up to him and struggled for the Codex, and Danik eventually lost the Codex to them as they fell down to the lower levels of the city. Enraged, Danik sent his remaining men on a manhunt for the two.

Danik death

Danik is impaled by a piece of debris.

As Clarke and Carver prepared to use the Machine, Danik revealed his ace in the hole: Ellie was still alive and in his custody. If they wanted her back alive, they must let him turn off the Machine. Carver, believing that there were other ways to do the right thing, gave Danik the Codex in order to save Ellie's life. Danik then used the Codex to shut the Machine down; his actions triggered Convergence and freed the Moon from its frozen prison, and as Danik looked upon the monstrosity in awe, a massive shard of debris impaled his body, killing him instantly.

Legacy[]

"Brothers: Jacob Danik is dead, but our belief in Convergence cannot die. A Voice has spoken to me and told me the way. We can take our place in final unity, but we must reach for it. Evacuate all remaining ships into orbit and I will lead the way."
—The New Cult Leader to the surviving members of the Circle.
DS3 Awakened Danik Saint and Savior

A shrine to Danik on the CMS Terra Nova.

In the aftermath of his death, the Unitologist Cult born from the survivors of the Circle continued to heed the message of Danik on the CMS Terra Nova and declared him to be the "saint and savior" of their cult, as his final actions had completely awoken the Brethren Moons. The propaganda video of Danik recruiting new members to the Church of Unitology was played on a loop in one of the worship altars inside the Terra Nova.

Personality[]

"Will we too fall short of eternal glory because we stopped mere inches from the final stage? Will we also succumb to fear and fail to take the last step? Faith takes courage, my friends. Today, let us be the ones to set aside fear and accept the future promised by the Markers."
—Jacob Arthur Danik to his followers.[8]
1

"The darkness is at an end! Let the evolution begin!"

Danik believed himself to be a fairly reasonable individual taking extreme measures to save mankind against a perceived enemy: EarthGov. He always was polite, albeit in a passive-aggressive manner, when talking to Isaac. These are traits shared by numerous real-life terrorists.

Although clearly a religious zealot, Danik defended his beliefs by claiming to be a "man of science" and believed that Unitology's reverence of the Markers was grounded in fact, reason and logic. His faith in Unitology blinded him from the obvious truth of the Marker's capabilities and true purpose. Even after the Markers were revealed to be mere conduits for the Brethren Moons, Danik was confident in his belief that Convergence was the best path for humanity.

According to him, the Markers' ability to manipulate organic life, coupled with the fact that the Black Marker on Earth was present long before the appearance of humanity, was evidence that humanity's evolution and development occurred due to the guidance of the Black Marker and its powers. The implication was that the entire existence of the human species was a result of the intervention of the Markers and humanity's sole destiny was to achieve Convergence. Danik used this argument to dissuade Isaac Clarke from resisting him, claiming that Isaac was impeding the natural evolution of the universe.

Usually calm and boastful, a turning tide sent him into angry rants as well as short-tempered demands for Clarke and his company to accept their fates. In this respect, his attitude was not unlike Challus Mercer. As such, Danik's amusement with Clarke's uncanny ability to survive and push on after all that he endured wore thin and he resorted to more direct acts of violence to stop him. Despite the claim that his actions were driven by reason and logic rather than religious zealotry, he still used religious accusations when angered, referring to Isaac as a "filthy heretic".

Quotes[]

"Brothers and sisters. The age of man is at an end. We have become too many with too little to go around. Corporations that we once trusted with our money have squandered it. The governments that we once trusted with our future have sabotaged it. To their eternal credit, we are dying. But fear not, for there is a future. As promised by the prophet Michael Altman, the Black Marker has a plan - for all of you. It will lift us up from our miserable existence and we will become one; united in body and united in spirit. Our unity will be our salvation. We will live on, not as men, but as God. The Church of Unitology is waiting for you, my friends. Throw off the chains of this life and join us as the new one begins. I'm Jacob Arthur Danik. And I am this message."
—Jacob Danik's most common speech.
"A little trivia, Isaac, to put things in perspective. Fact: The original Marker, the Black Marker found on Earth, predates the rise of mankind. Are you listening to this? Fact: The Marker exerts a field of influence that guides and grows biological organisms, evolving them over time towards some greater purpose. Do you see where this is going?"
—Danik about the Black Marker's role in creating humanity.
"As part of the Marker test program, Isaac, you helped make them. And today, you of all people, get to watch me set them free."
—Danik moments before unleashing the Marker on the Lunar colony.
"This isn't the way, Isaac! There is a future for you! For all of us! You can see them again, Isaac. Everyone you've lost along the way! It's a future with no regrets!"
—Danik tries to convince Isaac to accept Convergence.

Trivia[]

  • Danik's likeness is modeled after his voice actor, Simon Templeman.[9]
  • Danik is never seen without his sunglasses or white suit. In addition, despite his short hair, he has a visible ponytail mid-length down the back of his head.
  • Danik is seen wielding an SMG throughout the game, though he only fires it twice. However, his gun is noticeably different from other submachine guns as his fires only a single round per shot instead of two. It also uses the firing sound of a Revolver instead of the usual SMG's.
  • Danik is referenced in Dead Space (2023), with his initials in the New Game+ text log "Last Will and Testament", being a witness to Octavia Clarke's decision to bequeath her body and possessions to the Church.

Gallery[]

Sources[]

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