Eric

*Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light...**This article is about The Dark Pictures Anthology's third installment,* ***House of Ashes***
***.***

**Sub-Pages**

* **Eric**
* Gallery

## Biographical Information

### Nickname(s)

Dropkick (Callsign)
Colonel
Colonel King (by Rachel)
Puppy dog (by Rachel)
The one and only satellite guy (by Joey)
The skipper (by Jason)
The nerds (by Merwin)
Daddy (by Merwin)
Top-brass (by Nick)
Pencilneck (by Nick)

### Occupation

US Air Force Officer (Lieutenant Colonel)
Chief Nuclear Engineer
Leader of American Unit

## Game Information

### Playable Chapters

**Theatrical Cut**
The Briefing
Breaking Up
The Ancient One (Determinant)
**Curator's Cut**
The Temple
**Both Cuts**
Pazuzu
The Assault (Determinant)
The Horror (Determinant)
Daylight (Determinant)

### Death

Breaking Up
The Truce
The Signal
The Assault
The Horror
The Ancient One
Daylight

### Cause of Death

Shot in the chest
Falling and impaling on stalagmite
Shot in the head
Shot in the back
Explosion
Throat ripped out
Fall from high place
Impaled by vampire hand
Head crushed
Eyes gouged out

## Technical Information

### Model

Dawid Kocieda

Lieutenant Colonel **Eric Edmund King** is one of the five main protagonists and a playable character in *The Dark Pictures Anthology*'s third installment, *House of Ashes*. He is a US Air Force Lieutenant Officer, chief nuclear engineer of the Iraq Survey Group, creator of Caelus, and the husband of Rachel. He was voiced and motion captured by Alex Gravenstein and was modelled on Dawid Kocieda.

## Appearance

Eric is a man of light complexion. He has brown eyes covered with a pair of aviator sunglasses and wavy, dirty blonde hair brushed to the right. Instead of the right leg, he has a wooden prosthetic. He also has a faint stubble and small nasolabial folds.

Eric wears a crumpled white Henley shirt with rolled up sleeves, a black watch on his left wrist, classic jeans, leather belt and boots. Unlike Rachel, he keeps his ring close to his heart, wearing it as a necklace. For the operation, Eric wears a black plate carrier, a gray backpack with climbing gear, and an earpiece with a radio and flashlight; his weapons include a Glock pistol and a combat knife. As shown in one of the flashbacks, Eric was wearing a light blue two-button polo shirt, jeans, and was barefoot during the car crash.

Underground, Eric loses his sunglasses and wears a rappelling harness. As the game progresses, his appearance becomes increasingly stained with dust and small bloodstains. He can also be shot or bitten in the right forearm, but the wound could be patched if Nick found the med-kit.

## Personality

Known as the U.S. Air Force's "in-house genius," Eric is highly intelligent, as proven in his creation of the satellite system Caelus. In the game, he also shows such qualities as analytical, observant and pragmatic.

Although sent to lead the operation, compared to Rachel, Eric is a mediocre leader. His authority is always questioned by his subordinates, who often disobey Eric and even give him orders themselves, which causes him to abuse his status in an attempt to remind that he is still in command. He is also frequently blamed for the events of the game as he was the instigator of the suicide mission. Still, despite his inexperience in both combat and leadership, Eric has superior knowledge in military tactics than anyone else in his squad, and is able to stand up for himself.

Outside of the war environment, Eric is described as a good man. He is caring and very loyal to his loved ones, risking his life for them, for which Rachel calls him a puppy dog. That said, he can be quite resentful, reminding Rachel of her guilt over the accident and even leaving Nick to die upon learning of his affair with Rachel.

## Biography

Eric was born on July 28, 1967 and was a cadet at the United States Military Academy, where he met Rachel during climbing classes. They began a romantic relationship and got married in 2000. However, the good marriage did not last long - leaving a roadside diner not far from Little Hope, they crashed into a truck. This crash resulted in Eric losing his right leg and the couple split for a year. During this time, Eric developed a satellite program called Caelus.

On May 30, 2003, Eric led a team on a mission in search of weapons of mass destruction. When the American units arrived at the landing point in the Zagros Mountains, they were ambushed by an Iraqi patrol. Due to the warfare, Eric was plunged into the depths of the Zagros Mountains alongside his comrades and enemies. To survive what lurked below, Eric had to forge an alliance with the enemies from above. His fate would then be decided by the player, in which he would escape alive or die buried beneath the sands.

## *House of Ashes*

### Main Story

#### Act 1

Eric arrives on Camp Slayer with Clarice, who is greeted by Jason. Eric then walks through the palace with Jason guiding him around. Not long after, he meets his wife Rachel. He then briefs the squad and later talks with Rachel. After the data has already been downloaded, he with the others leave for the helicopters, to which Jason and Nick make a brief comment about him.

In the helicopter while flying through the Zagros Mountains, he doesn't play much of a role, but can be seen checking his prosthetic leg. After Mailman 2-1 raided the target LZ, Eric with his wife and assistant join in to search for the weapon silo. The Iraqis then start assaulting the Americans, to which Eric takes cover. This causes an earthquake, plummeting both sides into the caves below, including Eric.

After the earthquake, he wakes up near Rachel, and they explore the ruins together until they reach the large main temple chamber. The pair discovers an archaeologist camp there and power up a generator, lighting up the chamber and allowing them to listen to the final recording of Randolph. Immediately after this, they are found by Dar, who opens fire on them and forces them to flee. While traversing through the chasm, Rachel will slip in the next area as the ground beneath her shifts, forcing Eric to tie himself to her and hold on. Certain combinations of decisions in this segment will result in his death. Nick can potentially save him, and Dar, if alerted, can shoot and kill him.

#### Act 2

Jason and Nick with Merwin if alive will reunite with Eric. They then take cover inside the temple. Jason and Nick move on as Eric is tasked to guard the door or Merwin. When Jason and Nick heard Joey's scream, Eric meets with them. He insists he will join the team, which Jason can let him or not. If Eric joins, he will walk through the caverns with Nick and possibly Jason. As they hear another Joey's scream, Dar ambushes the Americans, whom he can injure Eric in the process. Afterwards, Nick is separated from his teammates and Eric will go search for him. Eric then finds Nick again, but possibly with Salim. If Salim confronts him, he can be shot in the head depend on whether Jason shot the fleeing shepherd or not. He will return to the temple with possibly a dead vampire, Salim, or nothing.

In the main hall of the temple, Eric may inspect Caelus's scans, the dead vampire, or talk with Salim, but he'll be distracted by a figure passing behind him. He will follow the figure, who is revealed to be a vampiric Joey attacking Jason on the crane. He can ignite Joey with the UV wand if he previously ignited the dead vampire or shoot him. As Jason and Nick inspect the radio, Eric joins them. When the vampires are alerted by the radio's noise, Jason commands Eric to retreat, but is immediately knocked by Dar. When the firefight goes on, he attempts to escape, to which he can either successfully do it, fail to do it and be shot in the process, or prevented by Salim to do so. He then falls back to the temple with the other Americans.

As Jason and Nick are about to close the door, Rachel, possibly with an infected Clarice, come in, much to Eric's surprise. After dealing with an ordeal, they continue to hear the vampires' screech, to which they retreat to the main hall. Eric and Jason attempt to hold the door shut, which may either succeed or fail. Eric will survive the vampires attack, but he will escape and can die by being blown up by the tripwires after being misled by Nick if Rachel did not shoot the vampires with the Vickers Gun. When they confront the Iraqis again, they hear the vampires' screech. Eric with the group retreats into the sacrificial chamber, where they are ambushed by a swarm of vampires. In the process, Eric encounters the Ancient One choking Nick. After helping Nick, Eric instead is grabbed by the Ancient One. Rachel can save Eric, Eric can save himself, or he will be killed by the Ancient One. If he survives, but Clarice is brought to the chamber, he will be ambushed and killed by vampire Clarice.

#### Act 3

In a possible flashback, Eric can be seen with Rachel conversing in a car near the diner near the town of Little Hope, where soon after, an accident happens. Reuniting with Nick and Rachel, the Ancient One starts to chase them (with vampire Rachel if she was infected). Eric can die by having his throat ripped out by the Ancient One or Rachel in the process. If they were spotted and Eric decides to save Nick, he will almost fall into a deep hole with the Ancient One, with Nick barely catching him. If Rachel is a vampire, she will tackle Eric and both will fall into the hole. Otherwise, if Rachel is alive, she will help him out if the hole, but Eric can fall if they fail. In the medical bay, Eric confronts Rachel about their relationship, to which Rachel can accept him and give him another chance or dump him for Nick. Either way, they move on to search for Jason.

Eric with Nick and Rachel find Jason and Salim while confronting a vampire. They escape to the Star Chamber, where he fixes his prosthetic leg. Afterwards, they may deal with an ordeal where Rachel is infected. He can use his UV wand to purge the parasite out of Rachel's body if he is aware about the vampires' weakness. Deciding to bomb the cocoon mounds, Eric will receive Nick's radio signal if the latter advanced and succeeded to plant the bombs, to which he can comply or ignore it. Retreating from the structure, he will gather with the others in the elevator. If Eric and Nick are the only survivors, they will either talk or argue.

In the caves, the group will be attacked by vampire Clarice/Rachel, whom Eric can die to the latter in the process. Eric with the other heroes successfully reaches the surface again, but is confronted by vampires once again when an eclipse rises moments later. They run for the shepherds' hut to defend for six minutes, according to Eric. Eric along with the others, fight the vampires with two flares, whom he can survive or die.

### The End

At Camp Slayer, Eric will be seen interrogated by an agent, he informs them about the creatures characteristics and then concludes that he will make sure the creatures stay buried underground.

* If Eric is dead, his body will lie inside a body bag.

## Killed Victims

Victims
 The Vault | A vampire
 Daylight | The Ancient One

## Relationships

### Rachel

*Main article: Eric and Rachel*

Rachel is Eric's wife. They have been married for 3 years but spent the last year apart. They both met during their cadet years in the U.S. Military Academy on a climbing class and began romantically involved afterwards. Shortly after their marriage, Rachel got into a vehicle accident with Eric that resulted in the loss of his leg. Eric is still in love with her despite their estrangement and come to the base to rekindle his relationship with her. Unbeknownst to him, Rachel started an extra-marital affair with Nick 3 weeks before the current events.

Throughout the game, they act romantic around each other and have the possibility of being involved again together or grow spiteful and cold towards each other depending on the player's decisions.

### Nick

Nick and Eric's first interaction is somewhat frosty. If Eric finds out Nick is the man that Rachel is seeing, the relationship becomes significantly more tense - however, if Nick and Eric are nice to each other and Nick chooses to be honest with Eric, they can bury the hatchet and have a newfound respect for one another by the end of the game - in this case, Eric will lend Nick his UV wand in the vault that can possibly save Nick's life during certain outcomes.

Other dialogue choices will lead to them being openly hostile - they may brawl with each other, Nick will be openly insubordinate. Having a low relationship stat will make Eric not giving him his UV wand and cut the radio while Nick asks for help, dooming him.

If they are the only survivors in the elevator ride, they can speak fondly about Rachel's memory; or they can argue with one another - Nick will call Eric a "pencilneck".

* Relationship Consequences

* Low Relationship
* Normal/High Relationship

* After Jason tells the mission is a bust and Eric says he can fix Caelus, Nick tells Eric he got them into this mess and that he better get them out, which angers Eric who reminds him of his rank as a commanding officer.
* Eric directly punches Nick after he hugs Rachel in front of him. (Theatrical Cut)
* Eric flees and leaves Nick to deal against the Ancient One alone. (Curator's Cut)
* Eric doesn't lend his UV wand to Nick when the latter goes down in the cocoon mount.
* Eric cuts the radio on Nick when the latter calls for help after blowing the main cocoon mount.
* If Eric and Nick are the only survivors left in the elevator, they argue and antagonize each other.

* After Jason tells the mission is a bust and Eric says he can fix Caelus, Nick tells the group they should move out.
* Eric hugs Rachel after seeing Nick hugging Rachel in front of him. (Theatrical Cut)
* Eric tries to make peace with Nick if Rachel dies after their encounter with the Ancient One.
* Eric lends his UV wand to Nick when the latter goes down in the cocoon mount.
* Eric responds to Nick's call for help after Nick blows the main cocoon mount.
* If Eric and Nick are the only survivors left in the elevator, they bond and yell out "Oorah" together in the elevator.
	+ They can also yell out "Oorah" with Jason and Salim if they make it.

### Jason

Eric seems to put a lot of trust in Jason as he put Jason in charge of the raid, Eric can be shown to question Jason in his choices but can put that aside and congratulate or be angry at him for not following his orders in the raid.

Jason can be restrained in his interactions with Eric, but can also potentially show anger bordering insubordination at the casualties they have suffered and the faulty intelligence which led them into this situation. Jason doesn't fully trust Eric's commands and tries to take the lead whenever possible at his place. If Eric died, Jason can angrily express in the interrogation that Eric led them into Hell.

* Relationship Consequences

* Low Relationship
* High Relationship

* When asked by Nick about his opinion on Eric, Jason says that Eric wants to show everyone who is the boss.
* After telling the mission is a bust and Eric says he can fix Caelus, Jason blames Eric for leading his team into a useless operation. (Curator's Cut)
* Jason refuses to let Eric take the lead to investigate and orders him to stay put. (Curator's Cut)

* When asked by Nick about his opinion on Eric, Jason says that Eric is a nice guy.
* After telling the mission is a bust and Eric says he can fix Caelus, Jason acts restrained and copy. (Curator's Cut)
* Jason refuses to obey Eric's orders to guard Merwin, if he is still alive, and prefers to investigate with Nick about the voice of Joey they had just heard. (Curator's Cut)
* Jason is assertive when Eric proposes to take the lead and orders him to stay, which Eric doesn't and follows them. (Curator's Cut)

### Salim

Eric is hostile towards Salim in the beginning with them having a standoff which can lead to Eric's death. If Eric survives he can be shown to be somewhat sympathetic towards Salim with him offering a bottle of water to drink, Eric blames Salim for the "death" of his wife Rachel at the cliff but even then Salim can open up about his son towards Eric even giving him his son's name which Eric in turn tells him Rachel's name. Salim shows trust in Eric even telling him the creature's weakness.

They do not interact much past this point but Eric shows reluctance in allowing Salim to carry a pistol when Jason chooses to give one to him. After that Eric can tell Jason to leave Salim behind, his reasoning is that Salim's not one of them. If Eric and Salim are the only two survivors on the elevator ride, he will express surprise that Jason went to save Salim, saying that Jason hated Iraqis.

## Trivia

### Playability

* Eric is the least playable protagonist, having 8 playable chapters in total.
	+ Eric has 7 official playable chapters in Theatrical Cut, that being one in The Briefing, Pazuzu, Breaking Up, The Assault, The Horror, The Ancient One, and Daylight.
	+ Eric has 5 official playable chapters in Curator's Cut, that being one in Pazuzu, The Temple, The Assault, The Horror, and Daylight.
* Eric appears in 19 chapters.
* Eric is the only protagonist in the anthology to have no exploration segments in chapters after Act 1, as he is only playable in the cutscenes.

### Pictures

*See also: Category:Pictures found by Eric*

* Eric is tied with Rachel for finding the least pictures, with 2.
	+ Eric can find 1 black picture and 1 white picture.
* Only Eric can find Fallen.
* Eric appears in 3 pictures: Ultraviolet, Fallen, and Tripwire.
* Eric and Salim are the only protagonists who can't find the gold picture.

### Secrets

*See also: Category:Secrets found by Eric*

* Eric can find the least number of secrets, with 9.
* Only Eric can find Pazuzu.

### Facts

* Eric is an atheist, which is revealed when Jason asks him if he believes in God.
* Eric doesn't like horror movies, unlike Rachel.

### Deaths

* Eric, along with Angela, Conrad, and Erin are the protagonists with the first chance to die in their respective games. In Eric's case, he starts with Breaking Up.
	+ Coincidentally, Angela, Conrad, and Eric feature two death scenes about them in the black pictures. (Familiars and Like a Stone for Angela, Cut and Run and Ship Shape for Conrad, Fallen and Tripwire for Eric)
* Eric is tied with Rachel for having the most deaths (with 10) and has the most chapters to die in (with 7).
* Eric is one of many characters in the game, as well as in the anthology who can die from:
	+ Being shot. In Eric's case, he can be shot by Dar or Salim.
	+ Impalement. In Eric's case, he can be impaled by a stalagmite or a vampire's hand.
	+ Explosion. In Eric's case, he can be blown up by the mines Jason and Nick set in one of the catacombs' corridors.
	+ Having their throat ripped out. In Eric's case, his throat can be ripped out by The Ancient One, vampire Clarice, or vampire Rachel.
	+ Falling to their death. In Eric's case, he can fall into a deep hole.
	+ A head crush. In Eric's case, his head can be crushed by a vampire.
	+ Having their eyes gouged out. In Eric's case, his eyes can be gouged out by The Ancient One.
* Eric is the only protagonist who can be killed by the Iraqi soldiers, as he can be shot by both Dar and Salim.
* Eric is one of many characters in the anthology who can kill the protagonists. In Eric's case, he can kill Rachel.

### Other

* Eric shares the same face model as:
	+ Jack Calvary from *Hidden Agenda*.
	+ Gordon Bennet from *The Inpatient*.
	+ Hanson from *Bravo Team*.
	+ Isaac Worel and the officer from *Little Hope*.
	+ The truck driver and a state officer from *The Devil in Me*.
	+ The fireman from *Switchback VR*.
* Eric is one of many characters in the anthology who has confirmed relatives. In Eric's case, he has Rachel as his wife.
	+ This makes him one of many characters in the anthology who possesses romantic partners.

### Trophies

* Eric has 12 trophies associated with him:
	+ He shares with other protagonists the trophies "*Golden Path*" and "*Six Minutes of Night*".
	+ He shares with Jason, Nick, and Salim the trophy "*Ain't Got Time to Bleed*".
	+ He shares with Nick and Rachel the trophies "*Let Me Have a Go!*" and "*Climbing out of Hell*".
	+ He shares with Nick the trophies "*Ghost Signal*" and "*Oorah*".
	+ He shares with Rachel the trophies "*Double Tap*", "*The Thing*", and "*Until Death Do Us Part*".
	+ His personal trophies are "*Illuminating Evidence*" and "*Full Clearance*".

## Quotes

* Spoken by Eric
* Spoken about Eric

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/SuperMGames/status/1552670220233457665
2. ↑ File:Curatornames.PNG