Stanton Dowd

Stanton Dowd is a member of the Council of Five, which led the Illuminati prior to the Majestic 12 coup in . He is also the leader of the contemporary Knights Templar which controls the world's banks.Deus Ex: Black Light
==Biography==
===2029===
Born into a New York old money family with Illuminati ties for generations,Deus Ex Prima Guide Dowd was a natural candidate for advancement within the ranks of the secret cabal. The Dowds made their fortune by controlling shipping and banking, and Stanton was no exception. By 2029, Stanton Dowd was a member of the Council of Five and one of the world's shipping magnates, with a fleet of ships and significant stakes in banking worldwide. He captured the eye of one of Task Force 29 analysts due to a string of investments in South Africa, which did not include diamonds, making him the only shipping magnate in the world not involved in the diamond trade. This stuck out like a sore thumb against a background of typical old money investments, like high-tech, computer, and medical industries. The preliminary investigation also suggested that his birth certificate and passport may have been forged.TF29 Analysts' computers
During his tenure at the Illuminati Council of Five, Dowd's banking ties made him responsible for exercising financial pressure to aid the Illuminati in achieving their goals. He was based in New York City, and is said to never leave the city.Morgan Everett in Deus Ex: Icarus Effect. As directed by Lucius DeBeers, he worked with Volkard Rand to ensure the Human Restoration Act passed.Dialogue during the prologue of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Dowd also plotted to gain full access to the Palisade Bank Corporation Blade servers in Prague, by manipulating Ashani Talwar and Masaaki Oshiro using evidence of insider trading: Both Talwar and Oshiro freely used data securely stored on Blade servers to make targeted investments, and have even ordered the death of whistleblower Simona Saridakis. Although Dowd appeared to be blackmailing them both, Oshiro, Palisade's CTO, was in fact willingly working with him.RE: After our talk - e-mail on Masaaki Oshiro's computer in the Palisade Blade's Neural SubNet. 
Oshiro merely put on an act for his wife, Ashani Talwar, in order to convince her to agree to Dowd's request. Dowd's risky game had an immense potential pay-off: Full access to all of Palisade Blade servers, giving the Illuminati discretionary access to the secrets of other super-rich and megacorporations. If achieved, it would be something unprecedented, at least until the activation of Daedalus and Bob Page's Aquinas.System Rift
===2050s===
The decades after the Aug Incident and especially Page's coup, establishing Majestic 12, were not kind to the Dowd family. Page's aggressive and often violent business practices allowed him to dominate multiple markets, including shipping. Over two decades, the Dowds were forced to liquidate a significant part of their assets to remain afloat. Although still obscenely rich by any means (especially against the destitute millions of mid-century United States), Dowd does not possess the influence or riches necessary to challenge Page, at least directly. What he does have is a tremendous amount of knowledge and information - especially on the history of the Illuminati, global commerce, and technical specifications of his greatest ships, such as the PRCS Wall Cloud, seized by Page and used to transport the Gray Death.Deus Ex
By 2052, Dowd is isolated from his fellow Illuminati members, including friends like Elizabeth DuClare. Page's dominance over the network makes any kind of communications risky, while the increasingly hostile domestic situation forced Dowd to go into hiding in a series of safehouses - including the Dowd family crypt in Lower East Side Cemetery. To make matters worse, Dowd came down with the plague shortly before meeting JC Denton.Deus Ex official strategy guide: "Stanton Dowd comes from old, old money. These days, unfortunately, he doesn't actually have much of that old, old money... he just comes from it. Of course, for a family like Dowd's, "poor" is a relative term. It means they had to sell the yacht and one of the smaller castles, and they're down to their last railroad. Stanton Dowd isn't going to be boiling his Gucci loafers any time soon. Still, it's been a long and rather sudden fall.
The Dowds are also big noises in the secret ranks of the Illuminati... have been for generations. Stanton is no exception, having made it all the way to that organization's mysterious ruling council of five. Of course, these days even being a Prima Illuminatus doesn't mean as much as it used to.
Despite being poor, cut off from the seats of power, and just recently taken sick with the fatal gray death, Stanton Dowd always retains the unflappable charm and elan of the born aristocrat."
The PRCS Wall Cloud is being used by Majestic 12 to transport the Gray Death virus from Hong Kong to the United States. Since Dowd was the previous owner of the superfreighter, this brings Dowd to the attention of Tracer Tong, who also finds Illuminati "fingerprints" in the molecular structure of the Gray Death virus. Tong instructs JC Denton to contact Dowd in the hope that he can provide information on who created the virus. JC Denton meets Dowd in Hell's Kitchen, in a meeting arranged by Dowd's aide Harley Filben. 
Dowd instructs JC to scuttle the Wall Cloud before the Gray Death can be unloaded. Dowd provides JC with a map of the superfreighter decks, indicating the five tri-hull weld points and bilge pump locations. Dowd himself has contracted the Gray Death and is suffering from its effects. Thus, he asks JC to acquire Ambrosia from the superfreighter for him to treat the disease. 
Once JC has sunk the Wall Cloud, he visits Dowd in the Lower East Side Cemetery, where he offers all the information he can provide on the Gray Death virus. Dowd reveals that the "signatures" of Morgan Everett and Bob Page's can be found on virus, but it is Page who is responsible for using it as a weapon. When JC is in Area 51, Dowd contacts JC to supports Morgan Everett's proposal of killing Bob Page, which would allow the Illuminati to take back control from Majestic 12.
==Interactions==
=== Other interactions ===
* During the 8th mission, Dowd can be given the vial of Ambrosia found on the freighter for additional dialogue. This is the only use of the item in the game, although it can also be consumed by the player for no effect. Dowd will survive at least through the end of Deus Ex regardless of whether he is given the vial of Ambrosia to treat the Gray Death.
==Description==
== Notes ==
*He may have died in 2052 during the Collapse, as hinted by Chad Dumier and Nicolette DuClare.Deus Ex: Invisible War
*The Deus Ex Bible states, "Stanton Dowd is not his real name -- no one knows what that is." The notion that Dowd is not his real name dates back to at least design document v6.4, but is not mentioned in Deus Ex or any subsequent source other than the Deus Ex Bible. In Deus Ex, he can be found in the Dowd family crypt in New York, suggesting that at least his surname is real. 
*During Illuminati conferences in Deus Ex: Icarus Effect and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, one member of the meetings is located in New York. As most other Council of Five members are present, it is possible that this person is Stanton Dowd.
==Gallery==
Dowd.jpg|Dowd in Deus Ex
Dowd_NYC.jpg|Dowd in Hell's Kitchen, NYC
Dowd_crypt.jpg|Stanton in the Dowd family crypt
StantonDowd infolink.jpg|Stanton Dowd's infolink icon
StantonDowdConceptArt.png|Stanton Dowd concept art
==References==
Category:Deus Ex characters
Category:Deus Ex: Mankind Divided characters
Category:Illuminati characters
Dowd, Stanton