Darius Caxton

Darius Caxton

Eman Esfandi as Darius Caxton.

Full name	Darius Michel Caxton / də'raɪəs 'kækstən /
Other names	Nicknames: Dar; DMC
Born	15 October 2110, in Ankara Age: 39
Gender identity	Man, Asexual
Occupation	Independent Scholar of Linguistics
Locality	Fez

Characteristics

Height	5 ft 10 in
Weight	70 kg
Hair	Black
Eyes	Green

Cybernetic Enhancements

Spryt's name	Grendel
Spryt's status	Rooted
Other enhancements	None

Darius is an independent scholar who struggles to survive in a world dominated by the corporations that most people work for. After stumbling upon the discovery of an ancient text, he escapes with Jael. Racing to prevent the pandemic, Darius discovers a deep admiration for Jael and M3747r0n, two people who have given up much of what makes them human in order to survive. Darius eventually realizes that the only way to save the rest of humanity is to give up part of his own.

Darius wants to save humanity from the virus he has unearthed, despite humanity's flaws. This desire puts him into conflict with the powerful megacorporations that run the world, and his freiends who question his faith in humanity.

• Character's goal: Darius wants to save humanity from the virus that is wiping out the ability to communicate while also understanding the truth about human development.
• Character's motivation: Darius believes humanity is worth saving, no matter its flaws, but also has a burning desire to understand how humanity became such a flawed creature to begin with.
• Character's conflict: Darius struggles against the oppressive power of the megacorporations that want to suppress the truth and control the virus; he also struggles against the cynicism and apathy of his friends and colleagues in his quest for the truth.
• Character's epiphany: Darius realizes that the external forces that have shaped and manipulated the development of humanity are not as important as the potential results of that development.

Character Synopsis

Darius's recent research efforts have all proven futile, leaving him wondering if everything that can be known about the history of human language is already known -- if all the artifacts have already been found. He is at a low point in his academic career, uncertain the point of a scholar when there is nothing more to be said. In need of tokens and credit, he takes a job from the newly appointed Magistrate of Fez, P. Creedence Windsor, to find another scholar who has gone missing. The missing scholar is an old friend of Darius's, and he is easily able to track him to a dig site near Lake Elton, south of the Province of Moscow. When Darius arrives at the dig site, he finds Hassan alone and unable to communicate, and he finds an ancient stone tablet with writing on it that he cannot identify. Before he is able to make sense of the scene, he is confronted by Jael, a bounty hunter sent to retrieve the stone tablet. However, before they can do anything, they are both attacked by a militia strike force. Hassan is killed, but Jael is able to save Darius and the tablet. They escape the strike force on horseback.

Hiding out overnight in a ruined government building, Darius begins to analyze the tablet, scanning it into his virtual environment. He feels he understands the significance of the tablet even though he is not able to accept that significance. He relates the fable that the tablet tells about a host betraying his guest and accepts that he has to trust Jael in order to survive. The next day, Jael's ship arrives. Onboard, Darius explains to Jael the implications of the unknown language that appears on the tablet. During this discussion, M3747r0n appears to Darius and tells him to stop what he is doing. Darius tries to talk to M3747r0n while also explaining to Jael who M3747r0n is. M3747r0n tells Darius if he doesn't delete his files and surrender the tablet, the Low Gods will come after them. Darius and Jael argue about how to respond. Before they can come to an agreement, Jael's ship becomes incapacitated. She is able to crash land it, but in the process, the ship and the tablet are destroyed.

Taken in by a group of the Unseen, Darius and Jael learn about the virus that is spreading across the global network. Darius realizes that his actions have led to this growing pandemic, but also that the Low Gods are more powerful than he thought. Darius and Jael decide to turn off their Spryts to stay hidden from the Low Gods and from the corporations hunting them. He tells Jael the story of how he met M3747r0n, and in the process she learns that his Spryt is rooted. Jael shares with Darius that she grew up in a community of the Unseen. Darius eventually convinces Jael to help him get to ElCorp because he believes Creedence Windsor can help solve the pandemic Darius has unleashed. As they set out with a caravan headed toward Fez, M3747r0n reappears and tries to stop Darius, but because they are not using any technology, the Low Gods are not able to stop them. M3747r0n says it was not the Low Gods who attacked their ship and suggests he is in danger for helping Darius. In conversations around the campfire, Jael talks about growing up with the Unseen. Darius, who often feels overwhelmed by technology, imagines a life without it. One night, as Jael sleeps, Darius convinces M3747r0n to help him root Jael's Spryt.

After arriving at the outskirts of Fez, they are met by Kiyaara Lahl and a security team, who place them in a Faraday cage to protect them from the Low Gods. They are told to keep their Spryts off as they are escorted to ElCorp headquarters. In the cage, Kiyaara tells them about how quickly the virus is spreading. Darius is impressed by how seriously ElCorp is taking the crisis and believes he has made the right decision coming to Windsor. He explains that all of his research, as well as a 3D scan of the tablet, are stored in a Mnemonic chip in his brain. Inside ElCorp HQ, Darius and Jael are separated, both treating it as if the mission is accomplished and that they will now go their separate ways. In an awkward hug, Darius whispers to Jael that when she reboots her Spryt, she should look for a README file. Darius is escorted into a grand meeting room where he meets with Creedence Windsor, who talks incessantly about how Darius's efforts will save humanity. Darius is, as usual, unimpressed but still believes the core message. Creedence also chastises Darius for the "dangerous" company he's been keeping. Darius is then taken into a hallway by an armed guard to have the data extracted from his memory chip. As they are walking, all of the guards are rapidly killed. Darius sees Jael running toward him, guns drawn. Jael grabs Darius and they leap through a window, even though they are 200 stories high. They tumbled into a ship like the one Jael has discussed previously. Darius straps himself in as Jael uses the ship to destroy an entire fleet of drones and causes the city's defenses to damage the city itself, especially ElCorp HQ. In a final assault, Jael fires rockets into the upper floors of the building before flying away.

With their Spryts rooted, Darius and Jael are able to stay hidden for short bursts of time. Hiding in the isolation of Greenland, Darius continues to consider the puzzle of the tablet while Jael reprograms the ship to her special needs. M3747r0n appears to Darius and tells him of the disruption within the Low Gods. A rift is forming, with some wanting to allow the virus to cripple humanity and others recognizing the threat it contains to their collective. Darius asks M3747r0n's advice, and M3747r0n admits that the Low Gods do not understand how the tablet works because they no longer understand human language -- they are simply able to generate it when necessary. The conversation is interrupted by an attack by Kiyaara Lahl and a squadron of android soldiers.

Darius directs Jael to land the ship near the dig site where Hassan discovered the tablet. Jael resists because the location is already known to Lahl and others. Darius insists that the site may help him better understand the virus. Eventually, Darius is able to understand the context of the fable on the tablet [The Golden Rule >> Guest=Host]. The virus is not in the tablet but in human language itself. This is why the Low Gods have not been affected by the virus and why they cannot understand how it works -- because they no longer understand how human language works. Once again, Kiyaara's team arrive. M3747r0n disappears to try to disable the androids but leaves Darius with a set of coordinates and instructions to travel without technology. While M3747r0n and other Low Gods engage the androids, Jael and Kiyaara fight. Darius is left feeling helpless as he hides from the battle. He realizes it is his own human physicality that is preventing him from solving his problems.

After the battle, Darius and the wounded Jael travel to the coordinates provided by M3747r0n with their Spryts turned off. They complete the last 100 miles on horseback. Throughout the trip, Darius is distracted, often speaking to himself in different languages. At night, though, he is able to tend to Jael's wounds. After three days, they arrive at the coordinates provided by M3747r0n and are greeted by a teenaged girl who leads them into an underground bunker. There they find M3747r0n's body in a complex life-support system tended to by several teenagers, who explain how they tend to his body in order to keep it alive. Darius and Jael are able to reactivate their Spryts and then see M3747r0n. Me747r0n explains some of the religious nature of the Low Gods, including the limit of only 121 members. He says he and Darius have arrived at the same conclusion. M3747r0n's novices disconnect his body from the life-support system and prepare it for Darius, who after some awkward words to Jael, becomes the newest Low God, taking the name 3L3L37h (Eleleth).

Biography

1st Fifth (Ages 0-19)

Formation & Dependency (Crisis: Security vs. Uncertainty)

2nd Fifth (Ages 20-39)

Productivity & Social Validation (Crisis: Status vs. Stagnation)

3rd Fifth (Ages 40-59)

Reinforcement & Adaptation (Crisis: Relevance vs. Obsolescence)

4th Fifth (Ages 60-79)

Power vs. Decline (Crisis: Authority vs. Marginalization)

5th Fifth (Ages 80-99)

Legacy vs. Dissolution (Crisis: Transcendence vs. Irrelevance)

Relationships

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Characteristics

Physical Appearance

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Personality

Darius is fluent to some degree in 47 languages:

• Conversational Fluency: Mandarin, English, Spanish, Hindi, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Turkish, Persian, Swahili, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Dutch, Arabic
• Academic Fluency: Classical Chinese, Sanskrit, Latin, Ancient Greek, Urdu, Yiddish, Afrikaans, Armenian, Proto-Indo-European, Old Church Slavonic, Middle English, Old French, Proto-Germanic, Proto-Celtic, Ancient Hebrew
• Research Fluency: Sumerian, Akkadian, Ancient Egyptian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Coptic, Hittite, Tocharian, Ge'ez, Cherokee, Navajo, Georgian

Health

Darius is not particularly healthy, as he is generally too distracted by his work to stay fit. In addition to the standard environmental risks, he suffers from a number of low-level health issues like anemia, allergies, and eczema. His Spryt, Grendel, often needs to repeatedly remind him to take his morning pill.

Standard Morning Pill

• Radiation-Specific Additions
  • N-acetylcysteine (600 mg) + α-lipoic acid (300 mg): Potent free radical scavengers for ionizing radiation defense.
  • Melatonin (0.3 mg delayed-release): Low-dose nighttime antioxidant to enhance DNA repair mechanisms.
• Environmental Buffers
  • Selenium methionine → Sodium selenite (200 mcg): Higher bioavailability for glutathione peroxidase synthesis.
  • Astaxanthin (6 mg ↑ from 4 mg): Enhanced lipid-soluble UV/radiation shield.
• Solar Exposure Mitigation
  • Nicotinamide (500 mg): Reduces UV-induced immunosuppression and skin cancer risk.
  • Polypodium leucotomos extract (240 mg): Fern-derived systemic photoprotectant for epidermal DNA.
• Anemia & Eczema Synergy
  • Ferrous bisglycinate (27 mg elemental iron) + Vitamin C (500 mg): High-bioavailability iron with enhanced absorption; reduces nickel uptake implicated in eczema flare-ups.
  • Zinc carnosine (20 mg): Gut-skin axis stabilization; inhibits histamine release from mast cells.
• Allergy Immune Modulation
  • Quercetin phytosome (250 mg) + Stinging nettle extract (300 mg): Natural mast cell stabilizers targeting IL-4/IL-13 pathways for pollen/dust reactions.
  • Holotransferrin-bound lactoferrin (100 mg): Whey-derived iron carrier that primes regulatory T-cells against dander antigens.
• Epidermal Barrier Fortification
  • Ceramide NP (10 mg) + Evening primrose oil (500 mg GLA): Stratum corneum lipid matrix repair; reduces transepidermal water loss.
  • Vitamin D3 (2000 IU) + Vitamin A palmitate (3000 IU): Keratinocyte differentiation and antimicrobial peptide synthesis.

Delivery System

• Quadric-phasic release
  • Gastric burst: Iron + vitamin C (fasted absorption).
  • Enteric-coated antioxidants: NAC/α-lipoic acid + astaxanthin.
  • Colon-targeted: Probiotics + quercetin/nettle.
  • Nighttime micro-pill: Melatonin + zinc carnosine (printed as separate ingestible).
• Edible authentication: QR code printed with riboflavin ink (doubles as photo-protectant).

Complementary Protocols

• 3D-printed nasal filters:
  • Hydrogel_base
  • xylitol(15%)
  • cellulose_nanofibers(10%)  
• Evening topical emulsion:
  • Hydrogel with colloidal oatmeal
  • ceramide NP
  • Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (iron chelator)

Enhancements

Although Darius

Level 0: Baseline Integrations (Universal)

Darius received his Spryt at the standard age of 10. He named it Grendel almost immediately, after the monster in his favorite story, the ancient tale of Beowulf. However, unlike most children, he took to the Spryt slowly, often forgetting it was there. His parents were concerned that there was an incompatibility. When he was 18, he decided that he needed to fully embrace the technology and used it to teach himself about it. By the time he was 20, he had surpassed all of his friends in his ability to use the Spryt.

When he 32, he was contacted by M3747r0n, who asked for his help understanding Mesopotamian cuneiform. After Darius had completed the requested translation, M3747r0n taught him how to root his Spryt. As a result, Darius is able to manipulate the device in countless ways. In particular, he is able to make it broadcast false information about himself to other Spryts. He has never taken full advantage of the rooting.

Level 1: Basic Integration (Consumer-grade)

Darius has a 1 petabyte Mnemosyne Series 9 memory chip implanted in his brain that he uses as a repository when doing research.